The life and writings of Thomas Paine : containing a biography

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1908

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BOOK 320.81.P165 1908 v/.8 c
PAINE # LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
THOMAS PAINE

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THE INDEPENDENCE EDITION

OF THE

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

is limited to five hundred numbered
copies, of which this is

No.

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CONTAIN'ING A -BIOGRAPHY BY THOMAS

CLIO ^4W^^^ 4^ ^'E^^^^^^^^«NS BY
(Napoleon rc^oit au Louvre les Deputes de I'Armee)

Photogravure from an Original Painting

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EDITED AND

OANIFI. FH"

VINCENT PARKE AND COMPANY

NEW YORK

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CONTAINING A BIOGRAPHY BY THOMAS
CLIO RICKMAN AND APPRECIATIONS BY
LESLIE STEPHEN, LORD ERSKINE, PAUL
DESJARDINS, ROBERT G. INGERSOLL,
ELBERT HUBBARD AND MARILLA M. RICKER

EDITED AND ANNOTATED BY

DANIEL EDWIN WHEELER

VINCENT PARKE AND COMPANY

NEW YORK

COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY
VINCENT PARKE AND COMPANY

ESSAYS, LETTERS,
AND ADDRESSES

CONTENTS

Essays, Letters, and Addresses page

To the Public on Mr. Deane's Affair - - 1

Autobiographical Sketch - - - - 50

Messrs. Deane, Jay and Gerard - - 59

(1) Peace, and the Newfoundland Fisheries 71

(2) Peace, and the Newfoundland Fisheries 81

(3) Peace, and the Newfoundland Fisheries 93

The American Philosophical Society - - 113

Emancipation of Slaves - - - - 117

Public Good - 120

Letter to the Abbe Raynal, 1782 - - 180

Dissertations on Government; the Affairs of

the Bank ; and Paper Money - - - 287

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Napoleon at Versailles - - Frontispiece

Photogravure from an Original Painting

His Majesty George III - - - - 70
Photogravure from the Original Painting by
Sir Joshua Reynolds, presented to the
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Thomas Jefferson - - - - -116

Photogravure from the Original Painting by
Gilbert Stuart in Bowdoin College

James Monroe ------ g86

Photogravure from an Original Painting

Vll

ESSAYS, LETTERS, AND
ADDRESSES

TO THE PUBLIC ON MR. DEANE'S
AFFAIR

From the Pennsylvania Packet of December
31, 1778, and January 2, 5, 7, and 9, 1779.

HOPING this to be my last on the subject of
Mr. Deane's conduct and address, I shall
therefore make a few remarks on what has al-
ready appeared in the papers, and furnish you
with some interesting and explanatory facts ; and
whatever I may conceive necessary to say of
myself will conclude the piece. As it is my de-
sign to make those that can scarcely read under-
stand, I shall therefore avoid every literary
ornament, and put it in language as plain as the
alphabet.

I desire the public to understand that this is
not a personal dispute between Mr. Deane and
me, but is a matter of business in which they are
more interested than they seemed at first to be
apprised of. I rather wonder that no person was
curious enough to ask in the papers how affairs

1

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

stood between Congress and Mr. Deane as to
money matters. And likewise, what it was that
Mr. Deane has so repeatedly applied to the Con-
gress for without success.

Perhaps those two questions, properly asked,
and justly answered, would have unraveled a
great part of the mystery, and explained the rea-
son why he threw out, at such a particular time,
such a strange address. They might likewise have
asked, whether there had been any former dis-
pute between Mr. Deane and Arthur or WiUiam
Lee, and what it was about. Mr. Deane's round-
about charges against the Lees, are accompanied
with a kind of rancor, that differs exceedingly
from public-spirited zeal. For my part, I have
but a very slender opinion of those patriots, if
they can be called such, who never appear till pro-
voked to it by a personal quarrel, and then blaze
away, the hero of their own tale, and in a whirl-
wind of their own raising ; such men are very sel-
dom what the populace mean by the word
"stanch," and it is only by a continuance of serv-
ice that any public can become a judge of a man's
principles.

When I first took up this matter, I expected
at least to be abused, and I have not been disap-
pointed. It was the last and only refuge they
2

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

had, and, thank God, I had nothing to dread
from it. I might have escaped it if I would,
either by being silent, or by joining in the tumult.
A gentleman, a member of Congress, an asso-
ciate, I believe, of Mr. Deane's, and one whom
I would wish had not a hand in the piece signed
Plain Truth, very politely asked me, a few days
before Common Sense to Mr. Deane came out,
whether on that subject I was pro or con? I re-
plied, I knew no pro or con, nor any other sides
than right or wrong.

Mr. Deane had objected to my putting the
signature of Common Sense to my address to
him, and the gentleman who came to my lodgings
urged the same objections; their reasons for so
doing may, I think, be easily guessed at. The
signature has, I believe, an extensive reputation,
and which, I trust, will never be forfeited while
in my possession. As I do not choose to comply
with the proposal that was made to me for chang-
ing it, therefore Mr. Plain Truth, as he calls
himself, and his connections, may endeavor to
take off from the credit of the signature, by a
torrent of low-toned abuse, without wit, matter
or sentiment. t

Had Mr. Deane confined himself to his
proper line of conduct, he would never have been

3

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

interrupted by me, or exposed himself to suspi-
cious criticism. But departing from this, he has
thrown himself on the ocean of the public, where
nothing but the firmest integrity can preserve
him from becoming a wreck. A smooth and flat-
tering tale may do for a while, but unless it can
be supported with facts, and maintained by the
most incontestible proof, it wiU fall to the
ground, and leave the inventor in the lurch.

On the first view of things, there is something
in Mr. Deane's conduct which must appear mys-
terious to every disinterested man, if he will but
give himself time to reflect. Mr. Deane has been
arrived in America, and in this city, upwards of
five months, and had he been possessed of any
secrets which aff'ected, or seemed to afl*ect, the
interest of America, or known any kind of
treachery, misconduct, or neglect of duty in any
of the other commissioners, or in any other per-
son, he ought, as an honest man, to have disclosed
it immediately on his arrival, either to the Com-
mittee for Foreign Afl*airs, of which I have the
honor to be secretary, or to Congress. Mr.
Deane has done neither, notwithstanding he has
had two audiences with Congress in August last,
and might at any time have laid his written in-
formation before them, or before the Committee,
4

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

through whom all his foreign concerns Had
passed, and in whose hands, or rather in mine, are
lodged all his political correspondence, and those
of other commissioners.

From an unwillingness to expose Mr. Deane
and his adherents too much, I contented myself
in my first piece with showing their inconsist-
ency rather than their intentions, and gave them
room to retract by concealing their discredit. It
is necessary that I should now speak a plainer
language.

The public have totally mistaken this matter,
and when they come to understand it rightly, they
will see it in a very different light to what they
at first supposed it. They seemed to conceive,
and great pains have been taken to make them
believe, that Mr. Deane had repeatedly applied to
Congress to obtain an audience, in order to lay
before them some great and important discov-
eries, and that the Congress had refused to hear
such information. It is. Gentlemen, no such
thing. If Mr. Deane or any one else had told
you so, they have imposed upon you.

If you attend to a part of Mr. Deane*s Ad-
dress to you, you will find there, even from his
own account, what it was that he wanted an in-
terview with Congress for, viz. to get some how

5

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

or other through his own perplexed affairs, and
obtain an audience of leave and departure that he
might embark for France, and which if he could
have obtained, there is every reason to beheve, he
would have quitted America in silence, and that
the public would never have been favored with
his address, nor I plagued with the trouble of
putting it to rights. The part which I allude to
is this, "and having placed my papers and yours
in safety, I left Paris, in full confidence that
I should not be detained in America," to which
he adds this curious expression, " on the business
I was sent for." To be " detained " at home is
a new transposition of ideas, especially in a man
who has been absent from it two years and a half,
and serves to show that Mr. Deane was become
so wonderfully f oreignized that he had quite for-
gotten poor Connecticut.

As I shall have frequent occasions to make
use of the name of Congress, I request you to
suspend all kinds of opinions on any supposed ob-
ligations which I am said to lie under to that
body, till you hear what I have to say in the con-
clusion of this address, for if Mr. Deane's ac-
counts stand as clear with them as mine do, he
might very easily have brought his papers from
France. I have several times repeated, and I
6

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

again repeat it, that my whole design in taking
this matter up, was and is, to prevent the pubHc
being imposed upon, and the event must and wiU
convince them of it.

I now proceed to put the affair into such a
straight Hne that you cannot misunderstand it.

Mr. Deane wrote his address to you some
time in November, and kept it by him in order to
pubHsh or not as it might suit his purpose.*

* This is fully proved by the address itself which is dated
November, but without any day of the month, and the same is
likewise acknowledged by his blundering friend Mr. Plain Truth.
His words are, "Mr. Deane, it is true, wrote his address" (dated
November) "previous to his application to Congress, of the thirtieth
of November." He certainly could not write it after, there being,
unfortunately for him, but thirty days in that month; "but," con-
tinues Mr. Plaik Truth, "he was determined notwithstanding
some forceable reasons, which the vigilant part of the public are at
no loss to guess, not to publish it if he could be assured of an
early audience with Congress." Mr. Deane was in a confounded
hurry, sure that he could not submit to be detained in America
tiU the next day, for on that very next day, December first, in
consequence of his letter the Congress, "Resolved to spend two
hours each day, beginning at six in the evening, till the state of
their foreign affairs should be fully ascertained." This naturally
included all and every part of Mr. Deane's affairs, information
and everything else, and it is impossible but he (connected as he
is with some late and present members of Congress) should know
immediately about it.

I should be glad to be informed what those "forceable reasons"
are at which the vigilant part of the public "guess" and likewise
how early Mr. Deane expected an audience, since the resolution
of the next day appears to have been too late, I am suspicious
that it was too soon, and that Mr. Deane and his connections were
not prepared for such an early examination notwithstanding he
had been here upwards of five months, and if the thing is to be
"guessed" at at last, and that by the vigilant part of the publiC;

7

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

On the thirtieth day of the same month he applied
by letter to Congress, and what do you think it
was for? To give them any important informa-
tion? No. To "tell them what he has wrote to
you?" No, it was to acquaint them that he had
missed agreeable opportunities of returning to
France; dismal misfortune indeed ! And that the
season (of the year) is now becoming as pressing
as the business which calls him bach, and therefore
he earnestly entreated the attention of Congress,
to what? To his great information? No, to his
important discoveries? No, but to his own situa-
tion and requests. These are, I believe, his own
words.

Now it only remains to know whether Mr.
Deane's official affairs were in a fit position for

I think I have as great a right to guess as most men, and Mr.
Plain Truth, if he pleases, may guess what I mean; but lest he
should mistake I will tell him my guess, it is, that the whole
afiFair is a juggle to amuse the people with, in order to prevent
the state of foreign affairs being inquired into, and Mr. Deane's
accounts, and those he is connected with in America settled
as they ought to be; and were I to go on guessing, I should like-
wise guess that this is the reason why his accounts are left behind,
though I know many people inclined to guess that he has them
with him but has forgot them; for my part I don't choose at
present to go so far. If any one can give a better guess than I
have done I shall give mine up, but as the gentlemen choose to
submit it to a guess, I choose therefore to take them upon their
own terms, and put in for the honor of being right. It was, I
think, an injudicious word for them to use, especially at Christmas
time.

8

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

him to be permitted to quit America or not ; and
I trust, that when I tell you, I have been secre-
tary for foreign affairs almost two years, you
will allow that I must be some judge of the
matter.

You have already heard what Mr. Deane's
application to Congress was for. And as one of
the public, under the well known signature of
Common Sense^ I humbly conceive, that the
Congress have done that which as a faithful body
of representatives they ought to do, that is, they
ordered an inquiry into the state of foreign
affairs and accounts which Mr. Deane had been
intrusted with, before they could, with justice to
you, grant the request he asked. And this was
the more necessary to be done, because Mr.
Deane says he has left his papers and accounts
behind him. Did ever any steward, when called
upon to surrender up his stewardship, make such
a weak and frivolous excuse? Mr. Deane saw
himself not only recalled but superseded in his
office by another person, and he could have no
right to think he should return^ nor any pretense
to come away without the necessary credentials.

His friend and associate, and perhaps part-
ner too, Mr. Plain Truth, says, that I have en-
deavored in my address, to " throw out a sugges-

9

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

tion that Mr. Deane is considered by Congress as
a defaulter of public money." The gentlemen
seem to wince before they are touched. I have
nowhere said so, but this I will say, that his ac-
counts are not satisfactory. Mr. Plain Truth
endeavors to palliate what he cannot contradict,
and with a seeming triumph assures the pubHc
" that Mr. Deane not long after his arrival laid
before Congress a general statement of the re-
ceipts and expenditures of the monies which
passed thro' his hands"; to which Mr. Plain
Truth subjoins the following extraordinary
apology:

"It is true the account was not accompanied
with all the vouchers for the particular expendi-
tures." And why not I ask? for without those it
was no account at all ; it was what the sailors call
a boot account, so much money gone and the
Lord knows for what. Mr. Deane had secre-
taries and clerks, and ought to have known better
than to produce such an account to Congress,
especially as his colleague Arthur Lee had de-
clared in an office letter, which is in my posses-
sion, that he had no concern in Mr. Deane's con-
tracts.

Neither does the excuse, which his whirligig
friend Mr. Plain Truth makes for him, apply
10

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

to his case ; this random shot gentleman, in order
to bring him as easily off as possible, says, "that
any person in the least conversant with business,
knows the time which is requisite for calhng in
manufacturers and tradesmen's bills, and prepare
accounts and vouchers for a final settlement " ;
and this he mentions because Mr. Deane received
his order of recall the fourth of March, and left
Paris the thirty-first: here is, however, four
weeks within a day. I shall make three remarks
upon this curious excuse.

First, it is contradictory. Mr. Deane could
not obtain the total or general expenditure with-
out having the particulars, therefore he must be
in the possession of the particulars. He surely
did not pass away money without taking receipts,
and what was due upon credit, he could only
know from the bills delivered in.

Secondly, Mr. Deane's contracts did not lay
in the retail way, and therefore were easily col-
lected.

Thirdly, The accounts which it was Mr.
Deane's particular duty to settle, were those,
which he contracted in the time of being only a
comotnercial agent in 1776, before the arrival of
Dr. Franklin and Arthur Lee, which separate
agency of his expired upwards of fifteen months

VIII-8 11

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

before he left France — and surely that was time
enough — and in which period of his agency,
there happened an unexplained contract of about
two hundred thousand pounds sterling. But
more of this when I come to remark on the ridic-
ulous puffs with which Mr. Plain Truth has set
off Mr. Deane's pretended services in France.
Mr. Deane has not only left the public papers
and accounts behind him, but he has given no
information to Congress, where or in whose
hands they are ; he says in his address to you, that
he has left them in a safe place, and this is all
which is known of the matter. Does this look
like business? Has it an open and candid or a
mysterious and suspicious appearance? Or would
it have been right in Congress to have granted
Mr. Deane an audience of leave and departure in
this embarrassed state of his affairs? And be-
cause they have not, his ready written November
address has been thrown out to abuse them and
amuse you by directing you to another object;
and myself, for endeavoring to unriddle confu-
sion, have been loaded with reproach by his parti-
sans and partners, and represented as a writer,
who like an unprincipled lawyer had let himself
out for pay. Charges which the propagators of
them know to be false, because some, who have
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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

encouraged the report, are members of Congress
themselves, and know my situation to be directly
the reverse.

But this I shall explain in the conclusion ; and
I give the gentlemen notice of it, that if they can
make out anything against me, or prove that I
ever received a single farthing, public or private,
for anything I ever wrote, they may convict me
publicly, and if they do not, I hope they will be
honest enough to take shame to themselves, for
the falsehood they have supported. And I Hke-
wise request that they would inform the public
what my salary as secretary for foreign affairs is,
otherwise I shall be obliged to do it myself. I
shall not spare them and I beg they would not
spare me. But to return —

There is something in this concealment of
papers that looks like an embezzlement. Mr.
Deane came so privately from France, that he
even concealed his departure from his colleague
Arthur Lee, of which he complains by a letter in
my office, and consequently the papers are not in
his hands ; and had he left them with Dr. Frank-
lin he would undoubtedly have taken the Doc-
tor's receipt for them, and left nobody to
"guess" at what Mr. Deane meant by a safe
place. A man may leave his own private affairs

13

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

in the hands of a friend, but the papers of a na-
tion are of another nature, and ought never to be
trusted with any person whatever out of the
direct line of business. This I conceive to be
another reason which justifies Congress in not
granting Mr. Deane an audience of leave and
departure till they are assured where those papers
are.

Mr. Deane might have been taken at sea, he
might have died or been cast away on his pas-
sage back from France, or he might have been
settled there, as Madame D'Eon did in England,
and quarreled afterwards as she did with the
power that employed him. Many accidents
might have happened by which those papers and
accounts might have been totally lost, the secrets
got into the hands of the enemy, and the possi-
bihty of settling the expenditure of public money
forever prevented. No apology can be made
for Mr. Deane, as to the danger of the seas, or
their being taken by the enemy, in his attempt
to bring them over himself, because it ought al-
ways to be remembered that he came in a fleet of
twelve sail of the line.

I shall now quit this part of the subject to
take notice of a paragraph in Mr. Plain Teuth.

In my piece to Mr. Deane I said, that his ad-
14

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

dress was dated in November, without any day
of the month, that on the last day of that month
he applied to Congress, that on the first of De-
cember the Congress resolved to investigate the
state of their foreign affairs, of which Mr. Deane
had notice, and that on the fourth he informed
them of his receiving that notification and ex-
pressed his thanks, yet that on the fifth he
published his extraordinary address.

Mr. Plain Truth^ in commenting upon this
arrangement of facts has helped me to a new dis-
covery. He says, that Mr. Deane's thanks of
the fourth of December were only expressed to
the president, Henry Laurens, Esq., for per-
sonally informing him of the resolution and other
attention to his affairs, and not^ as I had said, to
Congress for the resolution itself. I give him
credit for this, and believe it to be true; for my
opinion of the matter is, that Mr. Deane's views
were to get off without any inquiry, and that the
resolution referred to was his great disappoint-
ment. By all accounts which have been given
both by Mr. Deane's friends and myself, we all
agree in this, that Mr. Deane knew of the reso-
lution of Congress before he published his ad-
dress, and situated as he is he could not help
knowing it two or three days before his address

15

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

came out. Why then did he pubhsh it, s nee the
very thing which he ought to have asked for, viz.
an inquiry into his affairs, was ordered to be
immediately gone into?

I wish in this place to step for a moment from
the floor of office, and press it on every state, to
inquire what mercantile connections any of their
late or present delegates have had or now have
with Mr. Deane, and that a precedent might not
be wanting, it is important that this State, Penn-
sylvania, should begin.

The uncommon fury which has been spread
to support Mr. Deane cannot be altogether for
his sake. Those who were the original propa-
gators of it, are not remarkable for gratitude.
If they excel in anything it is in the contrary
principle and a selfish attachment to their own
interest. It would suit their plan exceedingly
well to have Mr. Deane appointed ambassador
to Holland, because so situated, he would make a
very convenient partner in trade, or a useful
factor.

In order to rest Mr. Deane on the shoulders
of the public, he has been set off with the most
pompous puffs — the Savior of his Country —
the Patriot of America — the True Friend of the
Public — the Great Supporter of the cause in
16

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

Europe — and a thousand other full-blown bub-
bles, equally ridiculous and equally untrue.
Never were the public more wretchedly imposed
upon. An attempt was made to call a town
meeting to return him thanks and to march in a
body to Congress to demand justice for Mr.
Deane. And this brings me to a part in Mr.
Plain Truth's address to me, in which he
speaks of Mr. Deane's services in France, and
defies me to disprove them.

If any late or present member of Congress
has been concerned in writing that piece, I think
it necessary to tell him, that he either knows very
little of the state of foreign affairs, or ought to
blush in thus attempting to rob a friendly nation,
France, of her honors, to bestow them on a man
who so little deserves them.

Mr. Deane was sent to France in the spring,
1776, as a commercial agent, under the author-
ity of the committee which is now styled the
Committee for Foreign Affairs. He had no
commission of any kind from Congress; and his
instructions were to assume no other character
but that of a merchant; yet in this line of action
Mr. Plain Truth has the ignorance to dub him
a "public minister" and likewise says.
That before the first of December, after his arrival he

17

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

had formed and cultivated the esteem of a valuable
political and commercial connection, not only in
France but in other parts of Europe, laid the founda-
tion of a public loan, procured thirty thousand stand
of arms, thirty thousand suits of clothes, more than
two hundred and fifty pieces of brass cannon, and a
great amount of tents and mihtary stores, provided
vessels to transport them, and in spite of various and
almost inconceivable obstructions great part of these
articles were shipped and arrived in America before the
operations of the campaign in 1777. To which Mr.
Plain Truth adds. That he has had the means of
being acquainted with all these circumstances, avows
them to be facts, and defies Common Sense or any
other person to disprove them.

Poor Mr. Plain Truth, and his avower Mr.
Clarkson, have most unfortunately for them
challenged the wrong person, and fallen into the
right hands when they fell into mine, for without
stirring a step from the room I am writing in, or
asking a single question of any one, I have it in
my power, not only to contradict but disprove it.

It is, I confess, a nice point to touch upon,
but the necessity of undeceiving the public with
respect to Mr. Deane, and the right they have to
know the early friendship of the French nation
toward them at the time of their greatest wants,
wiU justify my doing it. I feel likewise the less
difficulty in it, because the whole affair respect-
ing those supplies has been in the hands of the
18

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

enemy at least twelve months, and consequently
the necessity for concealing it is superseded:
Besides which, the two nations, viz. France and
England, being now come to an open rupture
makes the secret unnecessary.

It was immediately on the discovery of this
affair by the enemy fifteen months ago, that the
British INIinistry began to change their ground
and planned what they called their Conciliatory
Bills. They got possession of this secret by steal-
ing the dispatches of October, 1777, which should
have come over by Captain Folger, and this like-
wise explains the controversy which the British
commissioners carried on with Congress, in at-
tempting to prove that England had planned
what they called her Conciliatory Bills, before
France moved toward a treaty; for even admit-
ting that assertion to be true, the case is, that they
planned those bills in consequence of the knowl-
edge they had stolen.*

* When Capt. Folger arrived at York Towti [Pa.] he delivered
a packet which contained nothing but blank paper, that had been
put under the cover of the dispatches which were taken out. This
fraud was acted by the person to whom they were first intrusted
to be brought to America, and who afterward absconded, having
given by way of deception the blank packet to Capt. Folger. The
Congress were by this means left without any information of
European affairs. It happened that a private letter from Dr.
Franklin to myself, in which he wrote to me respecting my under-
taking the history of the present Revolution and engaged to fur-
nish me with all his materials toward the completion of that work,

19

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

The supplies here alluded to, are those which
were sent from France in the Amphitrite, Seine
and Mercury about two years ago. They had at
first the appearance of a present, but whether so,
or on credit, the service was nevertheless a great
and friendly one, and though only part of them
arrived the kindness is the same. A considerable
time afterwards the same supplies appeared
under the head of a charge amounting to about
two hundred thousand pounds sterling, and it is
the unexplained contract I alluded to when I
spoke of the pompous puffs made use of to sup-
port Mr. Deane.

On the appearance of this charge the Con-
gress were exceedingly embarrassed as to what

escaped the pilfering by not being inclosed in the packet with
the dispatches. I received this letter at Lancaster through the
favor of the president, Henry Laurens, Esq., and as it was the
only letter which contained any authentic intelligence of the gen-
eral state of our afiFairs in France, I transmitted it again to him
to be communicated to Congress. This likewise was the only
intelligence which was received from France from May, 1777,
to May 2, 1778, when the treaty arrived; wherefore, laying aside
the point controverted by the British commissioners as to which
moved first, France or England, it is evident that the resolutions
of Congress of April 22, 1778, for totally rejecting the British
bills, were grounded entirely on the determination of America to
support her cause — a circumstance which gives the highest honor
to the resolutions alluded to, and at the same time gives such
a character of her fortitude as heightens her value, when con-
sidered as an ally, which though it had at that time taken place,
was, to her, perfectly unknown.

20

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

line of conduct to pursue. To be insensible of a
favor, which has before now been practised be-
tween nations, would have implied a want of just
conceptions; and to have refused it would have
been a species of proud rusticity. To have asked
the question was both difficult and awkward; to
take no notice of it would have been insensibility
itself; and to have seemed backward in payment,
if they were to be paid for, would have impeached
both the justice and the credit of America.

In this state of difficulties such inquiries were
made as were judged necessary, in order that
Congress might know how to proceed. Still
nothing satisfactory could be obtained. The an-
swer which Mr. Deane signed so lately as Feb-
ruary sixteenth last past (and who ought to know
most of the matter, because the shipping the sup-
plies was while he acted alone) is as ambiguous
as the rest of his conduct. I wiU venture to give
it, as there is no political secret in it and the mat-
ter wants explanation.

Hear that Mr. B[eaumarchais] has sent over a
person to demand a large sum of you on account of
arms, ammunition, etc., — think it will be best for you
to leave that matter to be settled here (France), as
there Is a mixture in it of public and private concern
which you cannot so well develop.

Why did not Mr. Deane complete the con-

21

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

tract so as it might be developed, or at least state
to Congress any difficulties that had arisen?
When Mr. Deane had his two audiences with
Congress in August last, he objected, or his
friends for him, against his answering the ques-
tions that might be asked him, and the ground
upon which the objection was made, was, because
a man could not legally be compelled to answer
questions that might tend to criminate himself. —
Yet this is the same Mr. Deane whose address
you saw in the Pennsylvania Packet of Decem-
ber fifth signed Silas Deane.

Having thus shown the loose manner of Mr.
Deane's doing business in France, which is ren-
dered the more intricate by his leaving his papers
behind, or his not producing them, I come now to
inquire into what degree of merit or credit Mr.
Deane is entitled to as to the procuring these
supplies, either as a present or a purchase.

Mr. Plain Truth has given him the whole.
Mr. Plain Truth therefore knows nothing of
the matter, or something worse. If Mr. Deane or
any other gentleman will procure an order from
Congress to inspect an account in my office, or
any of Mr. Deane's friends in Congress will take
the trouble of coming themselves, I will give him
or them my attendance and show them in a hand-
22

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

writing which ]VIr. Deane is well acquainted with,
that the supplies, he so pompously plumes him-
self upon, were promised and engaged, and that
as a present, before he ever arrived in France,
and the part that fell to JNIr. Deane was only to
see it done, and how he has performed that serv-
ice, the public are now acquainted with. The last
paragraph in the account is, "^ Upon Mr. Deane*s
arrival in France the business went into his hands
and the aids were at length embarked in the Am-
phitrite. Mercury and Seine"

What will Mr. Deane or his aide de camp
say to this, or what excuse will they make now?
If they have met with any cutting truths from
me, they must thank themselves for it. My ad-
dress to IMr. Deane was not only moderate but
civil, and he and his adherents had much better
have submitted to it quietly, than provoked more
material matter to appear against them. I had
at that time all the facts in my hands which I
have related since, or shall yet relate in my reply.
The only thing I aimed at in the address, was, to
give out just as much as might prevent the pub-
lic from being so grossly imposed upon by them,
and yet save Mr. Deane and his adherents from
appearing too wretched and despicable. My
fault was a misplaced tenderness, which they

23

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

must now be fully sensible of, and the misfor-
tune to them, is, that I have not yet done.

Had Mr. Plain Teuth only informed the
public that Mr. Deane had been industrious in
promoting and forwarding the sending of sup-
plies, his assertion would have passed uncontra-
dicted by me, because I must naturally suppose
that Mr. Deane would do no otherwise; but to
give him the whole and sole honor of procuring
them, and that, without yielding any part of the
honor to the public spirit and good disposition
of those who furnished them, and who likewise
must in every shape have put up with the total
loss of them had America been overpowered by
her enemies, is, in my opinion, placing the repu-
tation and affection of our allies not only in a
disadvantageous, but in an unjust point of view,
and concealing from the pubHc what they ought
to know.

Mr. Plain Truth declares that he knows all
the circumstances, why then did he not place
them in a proper line, and give the public a clear
information how they arose? The proposal for
sending over those supplies, appears to have been
originally made by some public spirited gentle-
man in France, before ever Mr. Deane arrived
there, or was known or heard of in that country,
24

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

and to have been communicated (personally by
Mr. Beaumarchais, the gentleman mentioned in
the letter signed J. L. which letter is given at
length by Mr. Plain Truth) to Mr. Arthur Lee
while resident in London about three years ago.

From Mr. B's manner of expression, Mr. Lee
understood the supplies to be a present, and has
signified it in that light. It is very easy to see
that if America had miscarried, they must have
been a present, which probably adds explanation
to the matter. But Mr. Deane is spoken of by
Mr. Plain Truth^ as having an importance of
his owfij and procuring those supplies through
that importance; whereas he could only rise and
fall with the country that empowered him to act,
and be in or out of credit, as to money matters,
from the same cause and in the same proportion ;
and everybody must suppose, that there were
greater and more original wheels at work than he
was capable of setting in motion. Exclusive
of the matter being begun before Mr. Deane's ar-
rival, Mr. Plain Truth has given him the whole
merit of every part of the transaction.

America and France are wholly left out of
the question, the former as to her growing im-
portance and credit, from which all Mr. Deane's
consequence was derived and the latter, as to her

25

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

generosity in furnishing those supplies, at a time,
when the risk of losing them appears to have been
as great as our want of them.

I have always understood thus much of the
matter, that if we did not succeed no payment
would be required, and I think myself fully en-
titled to believe, and to publish my belief, that
whether Mr. Deane had arrived in France or not,
or any other gentleman in his stead, those same
suppMes would have found their way to America.
But as the nature of the contract has not been
explained by any of Mr. Deane's letters and is
left in obscurity by the account he signed the six-
teenth of February last, which I have already
quoted, therefore the full explanation must rest
upon other authority.

I have been the more explicit on this subject,
not so much on Mr. Deane's account, as from a
principle of public justice. It shows, in the first
instance, that the greatness of the American
cause drew, at its first beginning, the attention of
Europe, and that the justness of it was such as
appeared to merit support ; and in the second in-
stance, that those who are now her allies, prefaced
that alliance by an early and generous friend-
ship ; yet, that we might not attribute too much to
human or auxiliary aid, so unfortunate were
26

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

those supplies, that only one ship out of the three
arrived. The Mercury and Seine fell into the
hands of the enemy.

Mr. Deane, in his address, speaks of himself
as "sacrificed for the aggrandizement of others"
and promises to inform the public of '' what he
has done and what he has suffered." What Mr.
Deane means by being sacrificed the Lord knows,
and what he has suffered is equally as mysterious.
It was his good fortune to be situated in an ele-
gant country and at a public charge, while we
were driven about from pillar to post. He ap-
pears to know but little of the hardships and
losses which his countrymen underwent in the
period of his fortunate absence. It fell not to his
lot to turn out to a winter's campaign, and sleep
without tent or blanket. He returned to Amer-
ica when the danger was over, and has since that
time suffered no personal hardship. What then
are Mr. Deane's sufferings and what the sacri-
fices he complains of? Has he lost money in the
public service? I believe not. Has he got any?
That I cannot tell. I can assure him that I have
not, and he, if he pleases, may make the same
declaration.

Surely the Congress might recall Mr. Deane
if they thought proper, v^dthout an insinuated

VIII-4 27

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

charge of injustice for so doing. The authority
of America must be little indeed when she cannot
change a commissioner without being insulted
by him. And I conceive Mr. Deane as speaking
in the most disrespectful language of the Au-
thority of America when he says in his address,
that in December 1776 he was "honored with one
colleague, and saddled with another." Was Mr.
Deane to dictate who should be commissioner, and
who should not? It was time, however, to saddle
him, as he calls it, with somebody, as I shall show
before I conclude.

When we have elected our representatives,
either in Congress or in the Assembly, it is for
our own good that we support them in the execu-
tion of that authority they derive from us. If
Congress is to be abused by everyone whom they
may appoint or remove, there is an end to all use-
ful delegation of power, and the public accounts
in the hands of individuals will never be settled.
There has, I believe, been too much of this work
practised already, and it is time that the public
should now make those matters a point of con-
sideration. But who will begin the disagreeable
talk?

I look on the independence of America to be
as firmly established as that of any country which
28

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

is at war. Length of time is no guarantee when
arms are to decide the fate of a nation. Hitherto
our whole anxiety has been absorbed in the means
for supporting our independence, and we have
paid but little attention to the expenditure of
money ; yet we see it daily depreciating, and how
should it be otherwise when so few public ac-
counts are settled, and new emissions continually
going on? — I will venture to mention one circum-
stance which I hope will be sufficient to awaken
the attention of the public to this subject. In
October, 1777, some books of the Commercial
Committee, in which, among other things, were
kept the accounts of Mr. Thomas Morris, ap-
pointed a conMnercial agent in France, were by
Mr. Robert ^Morris's request taken into his pos-
session to be settled, he having obtained from the
Council of this State six months' leave of ab-
sence from Congress to settle his affairs.

In February following those books were
called for by Congress, but not being completed
were not delivered. In September, 1778, Mr.
Morris returned them to Congress, in, or nearly
in, the same unsettled state he took them, M^hich,
with the death of Mr. Thomas Morris, may prob-
ably involve those accounts in further embarrass-
ment. The amount of expenditure on those

29

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

books is considerably above two millions of dol-
lars.*

I now quit this subject to take notice of a
paragraph in Mr. Plain Truth^ relative to my-
self. It never fell to my lot to have to do with a
more illiberal set of men than those of Mr.
Deane's advocates who were concerned in writing
that piece. They have neither wit, manners nor
honesty; an instance of which I shall now pro-
duce. In speaking of Mr. Deane's contracts with
individuals in France I said in my address "We
are all fully sensible, that the gentlemen who
have come from France since the arrival of Dr.
Franklin and Mr. Lee in that country are of a

* There is an article in the Constitution of this State, which,
were it at this time introduced as a Continental regulation, might
be of infinite service; I mean a Council of Censors to inspect into
the expenditure of public money and call defaulters to an account.
It is, in my opinion, one of the best things in the Constitution,
and that which the people ought never to give up, and whenever
they do they will deserve to be cheated. It has not the most
favorable look that those who are hoping to succeed to the gov-
ernment of this State, by a change in the Constitution, are so
anxious to get that article abolished. Let expenses be ever so
great, only let them be fair and necessary, and no good citizen
will grumble.

Perhaps it may be said. Why do not the Congress do those
things? To which I might, by another question reply, Why don't
you support them when they attempt it? It is not quite so easy a
matter to accomplish that point in Congress as perhaps many
conceive; men will always find friends and connections among
the body that appoints them, which will render all such inquiries
difficult.

30

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

different rank from the generality of those
with whom Mr. Deane contracted when alone."
These are the exact words I used in my address.

Mr. Plain Truth has misquoted the above
paragraph into his piece, and that in a manner,
which shows him to be a man of httle reading and
less principle. The method in which he has
quoted it is as follows: "All are fully sensible
that the gentlemen who came from France since
the arrival of Dr. Franklin and Mr. Lee in that
country, are of a diff'erent rank from those
with whom ISlr. Deane contracted when acting
separately." Thus by leaving out the words
"the generality of" Mr. Plain Truth has al-
tered the sense of my expression, so as to suit a
most malicious purpose in his own, which could be
no other, than that of embroiling me with the
French gentlemen that have remained ; whereas it
is evident, that my mode of expression was in-
tended to do justice to such characters as Fleury
and Touzard, by making a distinction they are
clearly entitled to.

Mr. Plain Truth not content with unjustly
subjecting me to the misconceptions of those gen-
tlemen, with whom even explanation was difficult
on account of the language, but in addition to his
injustice, endeavored to provoke them to it by

31

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

calling on them, and reminding them that they
were the "Guardians of their own honor." And
I have reason to believe, that either Mr. Plain
Teuth or some of the party did not even stop
here, but went so far as personally to excite
them on. Mr. Fleury came to my lodgings and
complained that I had done him great injustice,
but that he was sure I did not intend it, because
he was certain that I knew him better. He con-
fessed to me that he was pointed at and told that
I meant him, and he withal desired, that as I
knew his services and character, that I would put
the matter right in the next paper. I endeavored
to explain to him that the mistake was not mine,
and we parted.

I do not remember that in the course of my
reading I ever met with a more illiberal and
mahcious mis-quotation, and the more so when
all the circumstances are taken with it. Yet this
same Mr. Plain Truth^ whom nobody knows,
has the impertinence to give himself out to be a
man of "education" and to inform the public that
"he is not a writer from inclination, much less by
profession" to which he might safely have added,
still less by capacity j and least of all by principle.
As Mr. Clarkson has undertaken to avow the
piece signed Plain Truth^ I shall therefore con-
32

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

sider him as legally accountable for the apparent
mahcious intention of this mis-quotation, and he
may get whom he pleases to speak or write a de-
fense of him.

I conceive that the general distinction I re-
ferred to between those with whom Mr. Deane
contracted when alone, and those who have come
from France since the arrival of Dr. Franklin
and Mr. Lee in that country, is sufficiently war-
ranted. That gallant and amiable officer and
volunteer the Marquis de la Fayette, and some
others whom Mr. Plain Truth mentions, did
not come from France till after the arrival of the
additional commissioners, and proves my asser-
tion to be true.

My remark is confined to the many and un-
necessary ones with which Mr. Deane burdened
and distracted the army. If he acquired any part
of his popularity in France by this means he
made the continent pay smartly for it. Many
thousand pounds it cost America, and that in
money totally sunk, on account of Mr. Deane's
injudicious contracts, and what renders it the
more unpardonable is, that by the instructions he
took with him, he was restricted from making
them, and consequently by having no authority
had an easy answer to give to solicitations. It

83

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

was Dr. Franklin's answer as soon as he ar-
rived and might have been Mr. Deane's. Gen-
tlemen of science or hterature or conversant with
the polite or useful arts, will, I presume, always
find a welcome reception in America, at least with
persons of a hberal cast, and with the bulk of the
people.

In speaking of Mr. Deane's contracts with
foreign officers, I concealed out of pity to him a
circumstance that must have sufficiently shown
the necessitj^ of recalling him, and, either his
great want of judgment, or the danger of trust-
ing him with discretionary power. It is no less
than that of his throwing out a proposal, in one
of his last foreign letters, for contracting with a
German prince to command the American Army.
For my own part I was no ways surprised when
I read it, though I presume almost everybody
else will be so when they hear it, and I think
when he got to this length, it was time to saddle
him.

Mr. Deane was directed by the committee
which employed him to engage four able en-
gineers in France, and beyond this he had neither
authority nor commission. But disregarding his
instructions (a fault criminal in a negotiator)
he proceeded through the several degrees of
34

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

subalterns, to captains, majors, lieutenant-col-
onels, colonels, brigadier-generals and at last
to major-generals; he fixed their rank, regulated
their command, and on some, I beheve, he be-
stowed a pension. At this stage, I set him down
for a commander-in-chief, and his next letter
proved me prophetic. Mr. Plain Truth^ in the
course of his numerous encomiums on Mr. Deane,
says, that —

The letter of the Count de Vergennes, written by
order of his Most Christian Majesty to Congress,
speaking of Mr. Deane in the most honorable manner,
and the letter from that Minister in his own character,
written not In the language of a courtier, but In that of
a person who felt what he expressed, would be sufficient
to counterbalance, not only the opinions of the writer
of the address to Mr. Deane, but even of characters of
more influence, who may vainly endeavor to circulate
notions of his insignificancy and unfitness for a public
minister.

The supreme authority of one country, how-
ever different may be its mode, will ever pay a
just regard to that of another, more especially
when in alliance. But those letters can extend
no further than to such parts of Mr. Deane's
conduct as came under the immediate notice of
the Court as a public minister or a political agent ;
and cannot be supposed to interfere with such
other parts as might be disapproved in him here

35

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

as a contractor or a commercial agent, and can
in no place be applied as an extenuation of any
imprudence of his either there or since his return;
besides which, letters of this kind, are as much
intended to compliment the power that employs,
as the person employed; and upon the whole, I
fear Mr. Deane has presumed too much upon the
polite friendship of that nation, and engrossed to
himself, a regard, that was partly intended to
express, through him, an affection to the con-
tinent.

Mr. Deane should likewise recollect that the
early appearance of any gentleman from Amer-
ica, was a circumstance, so agreeable to the
nation he had the honor of appearing at, that he
must have managed unwisely indeed to have
avoided popularity. For as the poet says.

Fame then was cheap, and the first comers sped.

The last Hne of the couplet is not applicable.

Which they have since preserved by being dead.

From the pathetic manner in which Mr.
Deane speaks of his "sufferings" and the little
concern he seems to have of ours, it may not be
improper to inform him, that there is kept in this
city a "Booh of Sufferings" into which, by the
assistance of some of his connections, he may
36

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

probably get them registered. I have not interest
enough myself to afford him any service in this
particular, though I am a friend to all rehgions,
and no personal enemy to those who may, in this
place, suppose themselves alluded to.

I can likewise explain to Mr. Deane, the rea-
son of one of his sufferings which I know he
has complained of. After the Declaration of In-
dependence was passed, ^Ir. Deane thought it a
great hardship that he was not authorized to an-
nounce it in form to the Court of France, and this
circumstance has been mentioned as a seeming in-
attention in Congress. The reason of it was this,
and I mention it from my own knowledge.

Mr. Deane was at that time only a commer-
cial agent, without any commission from Con-
gress, and consequently could not appear at
Court with the rank suitable to the formality of
such an occasion. A new commission was there-
fore necessar}^ to be issued by Congress, and that
honor was purposely reserved for Dr. Frank-
lin, whose long services in the world, and estab-
lished reputation in Europe, rendered him the
fittest person in America to execute such a great
and original design ; and it was likewise paying a
just attention to the honor of France by send-

37

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

Ing so able and extraordinary a character to an-
nounce the Declaration.

Mr. Plain Truth^ who sticks at nothing to
carry Mr. Deane through everything, thick or
thin, says:

It may not be improper to remark that when he
(Mr. Deane) arrived in France, the opinion of people
there, and in the different parts of Europe, not only
with respect to the merits, but the probable issue of
the contest, had by no means acquired that consistency
which they had at the time of Dr. Franklin's and Mr.
Arthur Lee's arrival in that kingdom.

Mr. Plain Truth is not a bad historian. For
it was the fate of Dr. Franklin and Mr. Lee to
arrive in France at the very worst of times. Their
first appearance there was followed by a long
series of ill fortune on our side. Dr. Frank-
lin went from America in October, 1776, at which
time our affairs were taking a wrong turn. The
loss on Long Island, and the evacuation of New
York happened before he went, and all the suc-
ceeding retreats and misfortunes through the
course of that year, till the scale was again turned
by taking the Hessians at Trenton on the twenty-
sixth day of December, followed day by day
after him. And I have been informed by a gen-
tleman from France, that the philosophical ease
and cheerful fortitude, with which Dr. Franklin
38

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

heard of or announced those tidings, contributed
greatly toward lessening the real weight of them
on the minds of the Europeans.

Mr. Deane speaking of himself in his address
says, "While it was safe to be silent my lips were
closed. Necessity hath opened them and neces-
sity must excuse this effort to serve, by informing
you." After which he goes on with his address.
In this paragraph there is an insinuation thrown
out by Mr. Deane that some treason was on foot,
which he had happily discovered, and which his
duty to his country compelled him to reveal. The
public had a right to be alarmed, and the alarm
was carefully kept by those who at first contrived
it. Now, if after this, Mr. Deane has nothing to
inform them of, he must sink into nothing.
When a public man stakes his reputation in this
manner, he likewise stakes all his future credit
on the performance of his obligation.

I am not writing to defend Mr. Arthur or
Mr. Wilham Lee. I leave their conduct to de-
fend itself; and I would with as much freedom
make an attack on either of these gentlemen, if
there was a public necessity for it, as on Mr.
Deane. In my address I mentioned Colonel R.
H. Lee with some testimony of honorable re-
spect, because I am personally acquainted with

39

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

that gentleman's integrity and abilities as a pub-
lic man, and in the circle of my acquaintance I
know but few that have equaled, and none that
have exceeded him, particularly in his ardor to
bring foreign affairs, and more especially the
present happy alliance, to an issue.

I heard it mentioned of this gentleman, that
he was among those, whose impatience for vic-
tory led them into some kind of discontent at the
operations of last winter. The event has, I
think, fully proved those gentlemen wrong, and
must convince them of it; but I can see no rea-
son why a misgrounded opinion, produced by an
overheated anxiety for success, should be mixed
up with other matters it has no concern with. A
man's political abilities may be exceedingly good,
though at the same time he may differ, and even
be wrong, in his notions of some mihtary par-
ticulars.

Mr. Deane says that Mr. Arthur Lee was
dragged into a treaty with the utmost reluc-
tance, a charge which if he cannot support, he
must expect to answer for. I am acquainted that
Mr. Lee had some objection against the con-
structions of a particular article [12th], which, I
think, shows his judgment, and whenever they
can be known will do him honor; but his general
40

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

opinion of that valuable transaction I shall give
in his own words from a letter in my hands.

France has done us substantial benefits, Great
Britain substantial injuries. France offers to guar-
antee our sovereignty, and universal freedom of com-
merce. Great Britain condescends to accept our sub-
mission and to monopolize our commerce. France de-
mands of us to be independent, Great Britain, tributary.
I do not conceive how there can be a mind so debased, or
an understanding so perverted, as to balance between
them.

The journeys I have made North and South in the
public service, have given me opportunities of knowing
the general disposition of Europe on our question.
There never was one in which the harmony of opinion
was so universal. From the prince to the peasant there
is but one voice, one wish, the Hberty of America and
the humiliation of Great Britain.

If Mr. Deane was industrious to spread re-
ports to the injury of these gentlemen in Europe,
as he has been in America, no wonder that their
real characters have been misunderstood. The
pecuhar talent which Mr. Deane possesses of at-
tacking persons behind their backs, has so near a
resemblance to the author of "Plain Truth," who
after promising his name to the pubhc has de-
clined to give it, and some other proceedings I am
not unacquainted with, particularly an attempt
to prevent my publications, that it looks as if one
spirit of private malevolence governed the whole.

41

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

Mr. Plain Truth has renewed the story of
Dr. Berkenhout, to which I have but one reply to
make: why did not Mr. Deane appear against
him while he was here? He was the only person
who knew anything of him, and his neglecting
to give information, and thereby suffering a sus-
picious person to escape for want of proof, is a
story very much against Mr. Deane ; and his com-
plaining after the man was gone corresponds with
the rest of his conduct.

When little circumstances are so easily dwelt
upon, it is a sign, not only of the want of great
ones, but of weakness and ill will. The crime
against Mr. William Lee is, that some years ago
he was elected an alderman of one of the wards
in London, and the English calendar has yet
printed him with the same title. Is that any
fault of his? Or can he be made accountable
for what the people of London may do?

Let us distinguish between Whiggishness and
waspishness, between patriotism and peevishness,
otherwise we shall become the laughing stock of
every sensible and candid mind. Suppose the
Londoners should take it into their heads to elect
the president of Congress or General Washing-
ton an alderman, is that a reason why we should
displace them? But Mr. Lee, say they, has not
42

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

resigned. These men have no judgment, or they
would not advance such positions. Mr. Lee has
nothing to resign. He has vacated his alderman-
ship by accepting an appointment under Con-
gress, and can know nothing further of the mat-
ter. Were he to make a formal resignation it
would imply his being a subject of Great Brit-
ain; besides which, the character of being an am-
bassador from the States of America, is so supe-
rior to that of any alderman of London, that I
conceive Mr. Deane, or Mr. Plain Truth, or
any other person, as doing a great injustice to the
dignity of America by attempting to put the two
in any disreputable competition. Let us be hon-
est lest we be despised, and generous lest we be
laughed at.

Mr. Deane in his address of the fifth of De-
cember, says, "having thus introduced you to your
great servants, I now proceed to make you ac-
quainted with some other personages, which it
may be of consequence for you to know. I am
sorry to say, that Arthur Lee, Esq., was sus-
pected by some of the best friends you had
abroad, and those in important characters and
stations." To which I reply, that I firmly be-
lieve Mr. Deane will likewise be sorry he has said
it. INIr. Deane after thus advancing a charge

VIII-5 43

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

endeavors to palliate it by saying, "these sus-
picions, whether well or ill founded, were fre-
quently urged to Dr. Franklin and myself." But
Mr. Deane ought to have been certain that they
were well founded, before he made such a pub-
lication, for if they are not well founded he must
appear with great discredit, and it is now his
duty to accuse Mr. Arthur Lee legally, and
support the accusation with sufficient proofs.

Characters are tender and valuable things;
they are more than life to a man of sensibiUty,
and are not to be made the sport of interest, or
the sacrifice of incendiary malice. Mr. Lee is an
absent gentleman, I believe, too, an honest one,
and my motive for publishing this, is not to
gratify any party, or any person, but as an act
of social duty which one man owes to another,
and which, I hope, will be done to me whenever
I shall be accused ungenerously behind my back.

Mr. Lee to my knowledge has far excelled
Mr. Deane in the usefulness of his information,
respecting the political and military designs of
the Court of London. While in London he con-
veyed intelligence that was dangerous to his per-
sonal safety. Many will remember the instance
of the rifleman who had been carried prisoner
to England alone three years ago, and who after-

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

wards returned from thence to America, and
brought with him a letter concealed in a button.
That letter was from this gentleman, and the
public will, I believe, conclude, that the hazard
Mr. Lee exposed himself to, in giving informa-
tion while so situated, and by such means, deserves
their regard and thanks.

The detail of the number of the foreign and
British troops for the campaign of 1776, came
first from him, as did likewise the expedition
against South Carolina and Canada, and among
other accounts of his, that the English emissaries
at Paris had boasted that the British Ministry
had sent over half a million of guineas to corrupt
the Congress. This money, should they be fools
enough to send it, will be very ineffectually at-
tempted or bestowed, for repeated instances have
shown that the moment any man steps aside from
the public interest of America, he becomes de-
spised, and if in office, superseded.

Mr. Deane says, "that Dr. Berkenhout, when
he returned to New York, ventured to assure the
British commissioners, that by the alliance with
France, America was at liberty to make peace
without consulting her ally, unless England de-
clared war." What is it to us what Dr. Berken-
hout said, or how came Mr. Deane to know

45

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

what passed between him and the British com-
missioners? But I ask Mr. Deane's pardon, he
has told us how. "Providence, (says he) in whom
we put our trust, unfolded it to me." But Mr.
Deane says, that Colonel R. H. Lee, pertina-
ciously maintained the same doctrine.

The treaty of alliance will neither admit of
debate nor any equivocal explanation. Had war
not broke out, or had not Great Britain, in re-
sentment to that alliance or connection, and of
the good correspondence which is the object of the
said treaty, broke the peace with France, either
by direct hostilities or by hindering her commerce
and navigation in a manner contrary to the rights
of nations, and the peace subsisting at that time,
between the two Crowns — in this case I likewise
say, that America, as a matter of right, could
have made a peace without consulting her ally,
though the civil obligations of mutual esteem and
friendship would have required such a consulta-
tion.

But war has broke out, though not declared,
for the first article in the treaty of alliance is
confined to the breaking out of war, and not to
its declaration. Hostilities have been com-
menced ; therefore the first case is superseded, and
the eighth article of the treaty of alliance has its
46

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

full intentional force: ''Article 8. — Neither of
the two parties shall conclude either truce or
peace without the formal consent of the other
first obtained, and they mutually engage not to
lay down their arms until the independence of the
United States shall have been formally or tacitly
assured, by the treaty or treaties that shall ter-
minate that war."

What Mr. Deane means by this affected ap-
pearance of his, both personally and in print, I
am quite at a loss to understand. He seems to
conduct himself here in a style, that would more
properly become the secretary to a foreign em-
bassy, than that of an American minister re-
turned from his charge. He appears to be
everybody's servant but ours, and for that reason
can never be the proper person to execute any
commission, or possess our confidence. Among
the number of his "sufferings" I am told that he
returned burdened with forty changes of silk,
velvet, and other dresses. Perhaps this was the
reason he could not bring his papers.

Mr. Deane says, that William Lee, Esq., gives
five per cent commission and receives a share of
it, for what was formerly done for two per cent.
The matter requires to be cleared up and ex-
plained; for it is not the quantity per cent, but

47

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

the purposes to which it is applied that makes it
right or wrong; besides which, the whole matter,
like many other of Mr. Deane's charges, may be
groundless.

I here take my leave of this gentleman, wish-
ing him more discretion, candor and generosity.

In the beginning of this address I informed
the pubhc, that " whatever I should conceive
necessary to say of myself, would appear in the
conclusion." I chose that mode of arrangement,
lest by explaining my own situation first, the
public might be induced to pay a greater regard
to what I had to say against Mr. Deane, than
was necessary they should; whereas it was my
wish to give Mr. Deane every advantage, by let-
ting what I had to advance come from me, while
I laid under the disadvantage of having the
motives of my conduct mistaken by the public.
Mr. Deane and his adherents have apparently
deserted the field they first took possession of
and seemed to triumph in. They made their ap-
peal to you, yet have suffered me to accuse and
expose them for almost three weeks past, with-
out a denial or a reply.

I do not blame the public for censuring me
while they, though wrongfully, supposed I de-
served it. When they see their mistake, I have
48

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

no doubt, but they will honor me with that regard
of theirs which I before enjoyed. And consider-
ing how much I have been misrepresented, I hope
it will not now appear ostentatious in me, if I set
forth what has been my conduct, ever since the
first publication of the pamphlet "Common
Sense" down to this day, on which, and on account
of my reply to Mr. Deane, and in order to import
the liberty of the press, and my right as a free-
man, I have been obliged to resign my office of
secretary for foreign affairs, which I held under
Congress. But this, in order to be complete, will
be published in the "Crisis" VIII, of which
notice will be given in the papers.

Common Sense.
Philadelphia, January 8, 1779,

49

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
JANUARY 14, 1779

TO HON. HENRY LAUEENS

O IR: My anxiety for your personal safety has
^^ not only fixed a profound silence upon me,
but prevents my asking you a great many ques-
tions, lest I should be the unwilling, unfortunate
cause of new diificulties or fatal consequences to
you, and in such a case I might indeed say, " 'T is
the survivor dies/*

I omitted sending the inclosed in the morning
as I intended. It will serve you to parry ill
nature and ingratitude with, when undeserved
reflections are cast upon me.

I certainly have some awkward natural feel-
ing, which I never shall get rid of. I was sen-
sible of a kind of shame at the Minister's door
to-day, lest anyone should think I was going
to solicit a pardon or a pension. When I come
to you I feel only an unwillingness to be seen, on
your account. I shall never make a courtier, I
see that.

I am your obedient humble servant,

Thomas Paine.

January 14, 1779.
50

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

Sir: — For your amusement I give you a
short history of my conduct since I have been in
America.

I brought with me letters of introduction
from Dr. Franklin. These letters were with a
flying seal, that I might, if I thought proper,
close them with a wafer. One was to Mr. Bache
of this city. The terms of Dr. Franklin's recom-
mendation were " a worthy, ingenious, etc." My
particular design was to establish an academy
on the plan they are conducted in and about
London, which I was well acquainted with. I
came some months before Dr. Franklin, and
waited here for his arrival. In the meantime a
person of this city desired me to give him some
assistance in conducting a magazine, which I did
without making any bargain. The work turned
out very profitable. Dr. Witherspoon had like-
wise a concern [in] it. At the end of six months
I thought it necessary to come to some contract.
I agreed to leave the matters to arbitration. The
bookseller mentioned two on his own part — Mr.
Duche, your late chaplain, and Mr. Hopkinson.
I agreed to them and declined mentioning any
on my part. But the bookseller getting infor-
mation of what Mr. Duche's private opinion was,
withdrew from the arbitration, or rather refused

51

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

to go into it, as our agreement to abide by it was
only verbal. I was requested by several literary
gentlemen in this city to undertake such a work
on my own account, and I could have rendered it
very profitable.

As I always had a taste to science, I naturally
had friends of that cast in England ; and among
the rest George Lewis Scott, Esq., through whose
formal introduction my first acquaintance with
Dr. Frankhn commenced. I esteem Mr. Scott
as one of the most amiable characters I know of,
but his particular situation had been, that in the
minority of the present King he was his sub-pre-
ceptor, and from the occasional traditionary ac-
counts yet remaining in the family of Mr. Scott,
I obtained the true character of the present King
from his childhood upward, and, you may natur-
ally suppose, of the present Ministry. I saw the
people of this country were all wrong, by an ill-
placed confidence.

After the breaking out of hostilities I was
confident their design was a total conquest. I
wrote to Mr. Scott in May, 1775, by Captain
James Josiah, now in this city. I read the letter
to him before I closed it. I used in it this free
expression: "Surely the Ministry are all mad;
they never will be able to conquer America."
52

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

The reception which the last petition of Congress
met with put it past a doubt that such was their
design, on which I determined with myself to
write the pamphlet "[Common] Sense." As I
knew the time of the Parliament meeting, and
had no doubt what sort of King's speech it
would produce, my contrivance was to have the
pamphlet come out just at the time the speech
might arrive in America, and so fortunate was I
in this cast of pohcy that both of them made
their appearance in this city on the same day.
The first edition was printed by Bell on the rec-
ommendation of Dr. Rush. I gave him the
pamphlet on the following conditions: That if
any loss should arise I would pay it — and in
order to make him industrious in circulating it,
I gave him one-half the profits, if it should pro-
duce any. I gave a written order to Colonel
Joseph Dean and Captain Thomas Prior, both of
this city, to receive the other half, and lay it out
for mittens for the troops that were going to
Quebec. I did this to do honor to the cause.
Bell kept the whole, and abused me into the bar-
gain. The price he set upon them was two
shillings.

I then enlarged the pamphlet with an appen-
dix and an address to the Quakers, which made

58

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

it one-third bigger than before, printed 6,000 at
my own expense, 3,000 by B. Towne, 3,000 by
Cist & Steyner, and delivered them ready stitched
and fit for sale to Mr. Bradford at the Coffee-
house; and though the work was thus increased,
and consequently should have borne a higher
price, yet, in order that it might produce the
general service I wished, I confined Mr. Brad-
ford to sell them at only one shilHng each, or ten-
pence by the dozen, and to enable him to do this,
with sufficient advantage to himself, I let him
have the pamphlets at 8^d. Pennsylvania cur-
rency each.

The sum of 8%d. each was reserved to defray
the expense of printing, paper, advertising, etc.,
and such as might be given away. The state of
the account at present is that I am £39 lis. out
of pocket, being the difference between what I
have paid for printing, etc., and what I have re-
ceived from Bradford. He has a sufficiency in
his hands to balance with and clear me, which is
all I aimed at, but by his unaccountable dila-
toriness and unwillingness to settle accounts, I
fear I shall be obliged to sustain a real loss
exclusive of my trouble.

I think the importance of that pamphlet was
such that if it had not appeared, and that at the
54

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

exact time it did, the Congress would not now
have been sitting where they are. The light which
that performance threw upon the subject gave a
turn to the politics of America which enabled her
to stand her ground. Independence followed in
six months after it, although before it was pub-
lished it was a dangerous doctrine to speak of,
and that because it was not understood.

In order to accommodate that pamphlet to
every man's purchase and to do honor to the
cause, I gave up the profits I was justly entitled
to, which in this city only would at the usual
price of books [have] produced me £1,000 at
that time a day, besides what I might have made
by extending it to other states. I gave permis-
sion to the printers in other parts of this State
[Pennsylvania] to print it on their own account.
I believe the number of copies printed and sold
in America was not short of 150,000 — and is the
greatest sale that any performance ever had
since the use of letters, — exclusive of the great
run it had in England and Ireland.

The doctrine of that book was opposed in the
public newspapers under the signature of Cato,
who, I believe, was Dr. Smith, and I was sent for
from New York to reply to him, which I did,
and happily with success. My letters are under

55

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

the signature of The Forester. It was like-
wise opposed in a pamphlet signed Plain
TrutHj but the performance was too weak to do
any hurt or deserve any answer. In July follow-
ing the publication of "Common Sense" the As-
sociators of this State marched to Amboy under
the command of General Roberdeau. The com-
mand was large, yet there was no allowance for
a secretary. I offered my service voluntarily,
only that my expenses should be paid, all the
charges I put General Roberdeau to was $48;
although he frequently pressed me to make free
with his private assistance. After the Asso-
ciators returned I went to Fort Lee, and con-
tinued with General [Nathanael] Greene till the
evacuation.

A few days after our army had crossed the
Delaware on the eighth of December, 1776, I
came to Philadelphia on public service, and, see-
ing the deplorable and melancholy condition the
people were in, afraid to speak and almost to
think, the public presses stopped, and nothing in
circulation but fears and falsehoods, I sat down,
and in what I may call a passion of patriotism,
wrote the first number of the "Crisis." It was
published on the nineteenth of December, which
was the very blackest of times, being before the
56

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

taking of the Hessians at Trenton. I gave that
piece to the printer gratis, and confined him to
the price of two coppers, which was sufficient to
defray his charge.

I then published the second number, which
being as large again as the first number, I gave
it to him on the condition of his taking only four
coppers each. It contained sixteen pages.

I then published the third number, containing
thirty-two pages, and gave it to the printer, con-
fining him to ninepence.

When the account of the battle of Brandy-
wine got to this city, the people were again in a
state of fear and dread. I immediately wrote the
fourth number [of the "Crisis"]. It contained
only four pages, and as there was no less money
than the sixth of dollars in general circulation,
which would have been too great a price, I
ordered 4,000 to be printed at my own private
charge and given away.

The fifth number I gave Mr. Dunlap at Lan-
caster. He, very much against my consent, set
half a crown upon it ; he might have done it for a
great deal less. The sixth and seventh numbers
I gave in the papers. The seventh number
would have made a pamphlet of twenty-four

57

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

pages, and brought me in $3,000 or $4,000 in a
very few days, at the price which it ought to have
borne.

Moneys received since I have been in America :

Salary for 17 months at 70 dollars

per month 1,190 dollars

For rations and occasional assist-
ance at Fort Lee 141 ditto

For defraying the expense of a
journey from East Town round
by Morris when secretary to the
Indian Commission, and some
other matters, about 140 or 145
dollars 145 ditto

Total of public money 1,476

In the spring, 1776, some private gentleman,
thinking that it was too hard that I should, after
giving away my profits for a public good, be
money out of pocket on account of some expense
I was put to — sent me by the hands of Mr.
Christopher Marshall 108 dollars.

You have here. Sir, a faithful history of my
services and my rewards.

58

MESSRS. DEANE, JAY, AND GERARD

From the Pennsylvania Packet of
September 14, 1779.

Mr. Dunlap:

TN your paper of August thirty-first was pub-
-*- lished an extract of a letter from Paris, dated
May the twenty-first, in which the writer, among
other things, says:

It is long since I felt in common with every other
well-wisher to the cause of liberty and truth, the obli-
gations I was under to the author of "Common Sense,"
for the able and unanswerable manner in which he has
defended those principles. The same public motives, I
am persuaded, induced him to address the public against
Mr. Deane and his associates. The countenance and
support which Deane has received is a melancholy pre-
sage of the future. Vain, assuming, avaricious and
unprincipled, he will stick at no crime to cover what
he has committed and continue his career.

The impunity with which Deane has traduced and
calumniated Congress to their face, the indulgence and
even countenance he has received, the acrimonious and
uncandid spirit of a letter containing Mr. Paine's pub-
lications which accompanied a resolve sent to Mr.
Gerard, are matters of deep concern here to every
friend to America.

By way of explaining the particular letter
referred to in the above, the following note was
added:

viii-Hj 59

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

The letter here alluded to can be no other than
that signed John Jay, dated January thirteenth, and
published in Mr. Dunlap's paper of January sixteenth.
It is very extraordinary that Mr. Jay should write such
a letter, because it contains the same illiberal reflections
which Congress, as a body, had rejected from their re-
solve of January twelfth, as may be seen by anyone
who will peruse the proceedings of January last. Con-
gress has since declined to give countenance to Mr. Jay's
letter; for tho' he had a public authority for writing a
letter to Mr. Gerard, he had no authority for the reflec-
tions he used; besides which, the letter would be per-
fectly laughable were every circumstance known which
happened at that particular time, and would likewise
show how exceedingly delicate and cautious a President
ought to be when he means to act officially in cases he is
not suflBciently acquainted with.

Every person will perceive that the note
which explains the letter referred to, is not a part
of the letter from Paris, but is added by an-
other person; and Mr. Jay, or any other gentle-
man, is welcome to know that the note is in my
writing, and that the original letter from Paris
is now in my possession. I had sufficient author-
ity for the expressions used in the note. Mr.
Jay did not lay his letter to Mr. Gerard before
Congress previous to his sending it, and there-
fore, tho' he had their order, he had not their ap-
probation. They, it is true, ordered it to be pub-
lished, but there is no vote for approving it,
neither have they given it a place in their jour-
60

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

nals, nor was it published in any more than one
paper in this city (Benjamin Towne's), tho'
there were at that time two others.

Some time after Mr. Jay's letter appeared
in the paper, I addressed another to Congress,
complaining of the unjust liberty he had taken,
and desired to know whether I was to consider
the expressions used in his letter as containing
their sentiments, at the same time informing
them, that if they declined to prove what he had
written, I should consider their silence as a dis-
approbation of it. Congress chose to be silent;
and consequently, have left Mr. Jay to father
his own expressions.

I took no other notice of Mr. Jay's letter at
the time it was published, being fully persuaded
that when any man recollected the part I had
acted, not only at the first but in the worst of
times, he could but look on Mr. Jay's letter to
be groundless and ungrateful, and the more so,
because if America had had no better friends
than himself to bring about independence, I
fully believe she would never have succeeded in
it, and in all probability been a ruined, conquered
and tributary country.

Let any man look at the position America
was in at the time I first took up the subject, and

61

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

published "Common Sense," which was but a few
months before the Declaration of Independence;
an army of thirty thousand men coming out
against her, besides those which were already
here, and she without either an object or a sys-
tem, fighting, she scarcely knew for what, and
which, if she could have obtained, would have
done her no good. She had not a day to spare
in bringing about the only thing which could
save her, a Revolution^ yet no one measure
was taken to promote it, and many were used to
prevent it; and had independence not been de-
clared at the time it was, I cannot see any time
in which it could have been declared, as the train
of ill-successes which followed the affair of Long
Island left no future opportunity.

Had I been disposed to have made money, I
undoubtedly had many opportunities for it.
The single pamphlet, "Common Sense," would at
that time of day, have produced a tolerable for-
tune, had I only taken the same profits from the
publication which all writers had ever done,
because the sale was the most rapid and exten-
sive of anything that was ever published in this
country, or perhaps any other. Instead of
which I reduced the price so low, that instead of
(getting, I yet stand thirty-nine pounds eleven
62

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

shillings out of pocket on Mr. Bradford's books,
exclusive of my time and trouble, and I have
acted the same disinterested part by every pub-
lication I have made. I could have mentioned
those things long ago, had I chosen, but I men-
tion them now to make Mr. Jay feel his ingrati-
tude.

In the Pennsylvania Packet of last Tuesday
some person has republished Mr. Jay's letter,
and Mr. Gerard's answer of the thirteenth and
fourteenth January last, and though I was pa-
tiently silent upon their first publication, I now
think it necessary, since they are republished, to
give some circumstances which ought to go with
them.

At the time the dispute arose, respecting Mr.
Deane's affairs, I had a conference with Mr.
Gerard at his own request, and some matters on
that subject were freely talked over, which it is
here unnecessary to mention. This was on the
second of January.

On the evening of the same day, or the next,
Mr. Gerard, thro' the mediation of another gen-
tleman, made me a very genteel and profitable
offer. I felt at once the respect due to his
friendship, and the difficulties which my accept-
ance would subject me to. My whole credit was

63

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

staked upon going through with Deane's affairs,
and could I afterwards have written with the
pen of an angel, on any subject whatever, it
would have had no effect, had I failed in that or
dechned proceeding in it. Mr. Deane's name
was not mentioned at the time the offer was
made, but from some conversation which passed
at the time of the interview, I had sufficient rea-
son to believe that some restraint had been laid
on that subject. Besides which I have a natural,
inflexible objection to anything which may be
construed into a private pension, because a man
after that is no longer truly free.

My answer to the offer was precisely in these
words — " Any service I can render to either of
the countries in alliance, or to both, I ever have
done and shall readily do, and Mr. Gerard's
esteem will be the only recompense I shall de-
sire." I particularly chose the word esteem be-
cause it admitted no misunderstanding. '

On the fifth of January I published a con-
tinuation of my remarks on Mr. Deane's affairs,
and I have ever felt the highest respect for a
nation which has in every stage of our affairs
been our firm and invariable friend. I spoke of
France under that general description. It is
true I prosecuted the point against JNIr. Deane,
6i

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

but what was Mr. Deane to France, or to the
Minister of France?

On the appearance of this publication Mr.
Gerard presented a Memorial to Congress re-
specting some expressions used therein, and on
the sixth and seventh I requested of Congress to
be admitted to explain any passages which Mr.
Gerard had referred to; but this request not be-
ing complied with, I, on the eighth, sent in my
resignations of the office of Secretary to the
Committee of Foreign Affairs.

In the evening I received an invitation to
sup with a gentleman, and Mr. Gerard's offer
was, by his own authority, again renewed with
considerable additions of advantage. I gave the
same answer as before. I was then told that Mr.
Gerard was very ill, and desired to see me. I re-
plied, " That as a matter was then depending in
Congress upon a representation of Mr. Gerard
against some parts of my publications, I thought
it indelicate to wait on him till that was deter-
mined."

In a few days after I received a second in^a-
tation, and likew^ise a third, to sup at the same
place, in both of which the same offer and the
same invitation were renewed and the same an-
swers on my part were given : But being repeat-

65

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

edly pressed to make Mr. Gerard a visit, I en-
gaged to do it the next morning at ten o'clock:
but as I considered myself standing on a nice
and critical ground, and lest my reputation
should be afterward called in question, I judged
it best to communicate the whole matter to an
honorable friend before I went, which was on
the fourteenth of January, the very day on which
Mr. Gerard's answer to Mr. Jay's letter is dated.

While with Mr. Gerard I avoided as much
as possible every occasion that might give rise
to the subject. Himself once or twice hinted at
the publications and added that, " he hoped no
more would be said on the subject," which I
immediately waived by entering on the loss of
the dispatches. I knew my own resolution re-
specting the offer, had communicated that reso-
lution to a friend, and did not wish to give the
least pain to Mr. Gerard, by personally refusing
that, which, from him might be friendship, but
to me would have been the ruin of my credit.
At a convenient opportunity I rose to take my
leave, on which Mr. Gerard said " Mr. Paine, I
have always had a great respect for you, and
should be glad of some opportunity of showing
you more solid marks of my friendship."

I confess I felt myself hurt and exceedingly
66

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

concerned that the injustice and indiscretion of
a party in Congress should drive matters to such
an extremity that one side or other must go to
the bottom, and in its consequences embarrass
those whom they had drawn in to support them.
I am conscious that America had not in France
a more strenuous friend than Mr. Gerard, and I
sincerely wish he had found a way to avoid an
affair which has been much trouble to him. As
for Deane, I believe him to be a man who cares
not who he involves to screen himself. He has
forfeited all reputation in this country, first by
promising to give an 'liistory of matters impor-
tant for the people to know " and then not only
failing to perform that promise, but neglecting
to clear his own suspected reputation, though he
is now on the spot and can any day demand an
hearing of Congress, and call me before them
for the truth of what I have pubHshed respecting
him.

Two days after my visit to Mr. Gerard, Mr.
Jay's letter and the answer to it was published,
and I would candidly ask any man how it is pos-
sible to reconcile such letters to such offers both
done at one and the same time, and whether I
had not sufficient authority to say that Mr. Jay's
letter would be truly laughable, were all the cir-

67

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

cumstances known which happened at the time
of his writing.

Whoever published those letters in last Tues-
day's paper, must be an idiot or worse. I had let
them pass over without any other public notice
than what was contained in the note of the pre-
ceding week, but the republishing them was put-
ting me to defiance, and forcing me either to
submit to them afresh, or to give the circum-
stances which accompanied them. Whoever will
look back to last winter, must see I had my
hands full, and that without any person giving
the least assistance.

It was first given out that I was paid by
Congress for vindicating their reputation against
Mr. Deane's charges, yet a majority in that
House were every day pelting me for what
I was doing. Then Mr. Gerard was unfortunate-
ly brought in, and ]Mr. Jay's letter to him and
his answer were published to effect some purpose
or other. Yet ^Ir. Gerard was at the same time
making the warmest professions of friendship
to me, and proposing to take me into his confi-
dence with very liberal offers. In short I had
but one way to get thro', which was to keep
close to the point and principle I set out upon,
and that alone has rendered me successful. By
68

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

making this my guide I have kept my ground,
and I have yet ground to spare, for among other
things I have authentic copies of the dispatches
that were lost.

I am certain no man set out with a warmer
heart or a better disposition to render public ser-
vice than myself, in everything which laid in my
power. My first endeavor was to put the poli-
tics of the country right, and to show the advan-
tages as well as the necessity of independence:
and until this was done, independence never
could have succeeded. America did not at that
time understand her own situation; and though
the country was then full of writers, no one
reached the mark ; neither did I abate in my ser-
vice, when hmidreds were afterwards deserting
her interests and thousands afraid to speak, for
the first number of the "Crisis" was published in
the blackest stage of affairs, six days before the
taking of the Hessians at Trenton.

When this State was distracted by parties on
account of her Constitution, I endeavored in the
most disinterested manner to bring it to a conclu-
sion; and when Deane's impositions broke out,
and threw the whole States into confusion, I
readily took up the subject, for no one else un-
derstood it, and the countrj'^ now see that I was

69

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

right. And if Mr. Jay thinks he derives any
credit from his letter to Mr. Gerard, he will find
himself deceived, and that the ingratitude of the
composition will be his reproach not mine.

Common Sense.

70

any

HIS MAJESTY GEORGE III

Photogravure from the Original Painting by Sir Joshua

Reynolds presented to the Royal Academy

of Arts, London

PEACE AND THE NEWFOUNDLAND
FISHERIES

From the Pennsylvania Gazette,
June 30, 1779

messieurs hall and sellers

Gentlemen :

A PIECE of very extraordinary complexion
-^ ^ made it appearance in your last paper,
under the signature of Americanus^ and what
is equally as extraordinary, I have not yet met
with one advocate in its favor. To write under
the curse of universal reprobation is hard indeed,
and proves that either the writer is too honest for
the world he lives in, or the world, bad as it is,
too honest for him to write in.

Some time last winter a worthy member of
the Assembly of this State put into my hands,
with some expressions of surprise, a motion
which he had copied from an original shown to
him by another member, who intended to move it
in the House. The purport of that, and the doc-
trine of Americanus^ bear such strong resem-
blance to each other that I make no hesitation in
believing them both generated from the same

71

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

parents. The intended motion, however, with-
ered without being put, and Americanus^ by
venturing into being, has exposed himself to a less
tranquil exit.

Whether Americanus sits in Congress or not,
may be the subject of future inquiry; at present
I shall content myself with making some stric-
tures on what he advances.

He takes it for granted that hints toward
a negotiation for peace have been made to Con-
gress, and that a debate has taken place in that
House respecting the terms on which such a
negotiation shall be opened.

It is reported, says he, that Congress are still
debating what the terms shall be, and that some men
strenuously insist on such as others fear will not be
agreed to, and as they apprehend may prevent any
treaty at all, and such as our ally [France], by his
treaties with us, is by no means bound to support us
in demanding.

AmericanuSj after running through a variety
of introductory matter, comes at last to the
point, and intimates, or rather informs, that the
particular subject of debate in Congress has
been respecting the fisheries on the Banks of
Newfoundland, some insisting thereon as a mat-
ter of right and urging it as a matter of absolute
necessity, others doubting, or appearing to doubt
■72

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

whether we have any right at all, and indifferent
whether the fisheries be claimed or not. Among
the latter of which Americanus appears to be
one.

Either Americanus does not know how to
make a bargain, or he has already made one, and
his affectation of modesty is the dress of design.
How, I ask, can Americanus^ or any other per-
son, know what claims or proposals will be re-
jected or what agreed to, till they be made,
offered or demanded? To suppose a rejection
is to invite it, and to publish our " apprehen-
sions" as a reason for declining the claim, is en-
couraging the enemy to fulfil the prediction.
Americanus may think what he pleases, but for
my own part, I hate a prophesier of ill-luck, be-
cause the pride of being thought wise often car-
ries him to the wrong side.

That an inhabitant of America or a member
of Congress should become an advocate for the
exclusive right of Britain to the fisheries, and
signify, as his opinion, that an American has not
a right to fish in the American seas, is something
very extraordinary.

It is a question, says he, whether the subjects of
these states had any other right to fishing than what
tliey derived from their being subjects of Great Britain;

73

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

and as it cannot he pretended that they were in the pos-
session and enjoyment of the right either at the time
of the Declaration of Independence or of signing the
Treaties of Paris, nor that it was ever included in any
one of the charters of the United States, it cannot be
surprising that many, who judge a peace necessary for
the happiness of these states, should be afraid of the
consequences which may follow from making this an ul-
timatum in a negotiation.

I should be glad to know what ideas Ameri-
CANUS affixes to the words peace and ijidepen-
dence; they frequently occur in his publication,
but he uses them in such a neutral manner, that
they have neither energy nor signification.
Peace, it is true, has a pleasant sound, but he has
nibbled it round, like Dr. Franklin's description
of a gingerbread cake, till scarcely enough is left
to guess at the composition. To be at peace cer-
tainly implies something more than barely a ces-
sation of war. It is supposed to be accompanied
with advantages adequate to the toils of obtain-
ing it. It is a state of prosperity as well as
safety, and of honor as well as rest. His inde-
pendence, too, is made up of the same letters
which compose the independence of other na-
tions, but it has something so sickly and so con-
sumptive in its constitution, so limping and lin-
gering in its manner, that at best it is but in
74

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

leading strings, and fit rather for the cradle than
the cabinet. But to return to his argument :

Americanus has placed aU his reasons the
wrong M^ay, and drawn the contrary conclusions
to what he ought to have done. He doubts the
rights of the States to fish, because it is not men-
tioned in any of the charters. Whereas, had it
been mentioned, it might have been contended
that the right in America was only derivative;
and been given as an argument that the original
right lay in Britain. Therefore the silence of
the charters, added to the undisturbed practise
of fishing, admit the right to exist in America
naturally, and not by grant, and in Britain only
consequentially ; for Britain did not possess the
fisheries independent of America, but in conse-
quence of her dominions in America. Her
claiming territory here was her title deed to the
fisheries, in the same manner that Spain claims
Faulkland's Island, by possessing the Spanish
continent; and therefore her right to those fish-
eries was derived through America, and not the
right of America through Britain. Wedded to
the continent, she inherited its fortunes of islands
and fisheries, but divorced therefrom, she ceases
her pretensions.

What Americanus means by saying, that it
viii-7 75

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

cannot be pretended we were in the possession
and enjoyment of the right either at the time of
the Declaration of Independence, or of signing
the Treaty of Paris, I am at a loss to conceive;
for the right being natural in America, and not
derivative, could never cease, and though by the
events of war she was at that time dispossessed
of the immediate enjoyment, she could not be
dispossessed of the right, and needed no other
proofs of her title than custom and situation.

Americanus has quoted the second and elev-
enth articles of the Treaty of Paris, by way of
showing that the right to the fisheries is not one
of those rights which France has undertaken to
guarantee.

To which I answer, that he may say the same
by any particular right, because those articles de-
scribe no particular rights, but are comprehen-
sive of every right which appertains to sover-
eignty, of which fishing in the American seas
must to us be one.

Will Americanus undertake to persuade,
that it is not the interest of France to endeavor to
secure to her ally a branch of trade which re-
dounds to the mutual interest of both, and with-
out which the alhance will lose half its worth?
Were we to propose to surrender the right and
76

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

practise of fishing to Britain, we might reason-
ably conclude that France would object to such
a surrender on our part, because it would not
only render us a less valuable ally in point of
commerce as well as power, but furnish the
enemy of both with a new acquisition of naval
strength; the sure and natural consequence of
possessing the fisheries.

Americanus admits the fisheries to be an
" object of great consequence to the United
States, to two or three of them more especially."

Whatever is of consequence to any, is so to
all; for wealth like water soon spreads over the
surface, let the place of entrance be ever so re-
mote; and in like manner, any portion of
strength which is lost or gained to any one or
more states, is lost or gained to the whole; but
this is more particularly true of naval strength,
because, when on the seas it acts immediately for
the benefit of all, and the ease with which it trans-
ports itself takes in the whole coast of America,
as expeditiously as the land forces of any partic-
ular state can be arranged for its own immediate
defense.

But of all the States of America, New York
ought to be the most anxious to secure the fish-
eries as a nursery for a navy; — because the par-

77

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

ticular situation of that State, on account of its
deep waters, is such, that it will ever be exposed
to the approaches of an enemy, unless it be de-
fended by a navy ; and if any of the delegates of
that State has acted a contrary part, he or they
have either designedly or ignorantly betrayed
the interest of their constituents, and deserve
their severest censure.

Through the whole of this curious and equiv-
ocal piece, the premises and arguments have, in
themselves, a suspicious appearance of being un-
fairly if not unjustly stated, in order to admit
of, and countenance, wrong conclusions ; for tak-
ing it for granted that Congress have been de-
bating upwards of four months what the terms
shall be on which they shall open a negotiation,
and that the House are divided respecting their
opinion of those terms, it does not follow from
thence that the "^ public have been deceived'' with
regard to the news said to have arrived last Feb-
ruary; and if they are deceived, the question is
who deceived them? Neither do several other
conclusions follow which he has attempted to
draw, of which the two I shall now quote are
sufficient instances.

If, says Americanus, the inusting on terms which
neither the Declaration of Independence nor the Treaties

78

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

of Paris authorized us to challenge as our rights, have
caused the late, otherwise unaccountable delays, and
prevented a peace, or at least a negotiation being
open for one, those who have challenged and in-
sisted on these claims are justly responsible for tJie con-
sequences."

This I look on to be truly Jesuitical; for the
delay cannot be occasioned by those who propose,
but by those who oppose^ and therefore the con-
struction should stand thus:

If the objecting to rights and claims, which
are neither inconsistent with the Declaration of
Independence or the Treaties of Paris, and nat-
urally included and understood in both, has
caused the late, otherwise unaccountable delays,
and prevented a peace, or at least a negotiation
for one, those who made such objections, and
thereby caused such delays and prevented such
negotiations being gone into, are justly respon-
sible for the consequences.

His next position is of the same cast, and ad-
mits of the same reversion.

Governor Johnstone, says he, in the House of
Commons freely declared he had made use, while in
America, of other means to effect the purpose of his
commission than those of reason and argument ; have
we not, continues Americanus, good right from pres-
ent appearances to believe that in this instance he de-
clared the truth.

79

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

To this wonderful supposition I shall apply
another, viz. That if Governor Johnstone did
declare the truth, who have we most right to sus-
pectj those who are for relinquishing the fisheries
to Britain, or those who are for retaining them?

Upon the whole, I consider the fisheries of
the utmost importance to America, and her nat-
ural right thereto so clear and evident, that it
does not admit of a debate, and to surrender
them is a species of treason for which no punish-
ment is too severe.

I have not stepped out of my way to fetch in
either an argument or a fact, but have confined
my reply to the piece, without regard to who
the author is, or whether any such debates have
taken place or not, or how far it may or [may]
not have been carried on one side or the other.

Common Sense.
Philadelphia, June 26, 1779,

80

PEACE, AND THE NEWFOUNDLAND
FISHERIES

From the Pennsylvania Gazette.
July 14, 1779

A MERICANUS, in your last, has favored
-^ ^ the public with a description of himself as
a preface to his piece. "I am," says he, "neither
a member of Congress or of the Assembly of this
State, or of any other, but a private citizen, in
moderate circumstances in point of fortune, and
tcJiose political principles have never been ques-
tioned/' All this may be very true, and yet
nothing to the purpose ; neither can the declara-
tion be admitted either as a positive or negative
proof of what his principles are. They may be
good, or they may not, and yet be so well known
as not to be doubted by those who know the
writer.

Joseph Galloway formerly wrote under the
signature of Americanus^ and tho' every honest
man condemns his principles, yet nobody pre-
tends to question them. When a writer, and es-
pecially an anonymous one, readily means to
declare his political principles as a reinforcement
to his arguments, he ought to be full, clear, and

81

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

decisive, but this declaration is so ambiguously
constructed and so unmeaningly applied, that it
may be used by any and every person either
within or without the enemy's lines, for it does
not declare what his principles are, but that, be
they what they may, they are not questioned.

Before I proceed, I cannot help taking notice
of another inconsistency in his publication of last
week. " In my last," says he, " I said that it was
very unhappy that this question has been touched
on or agitated at all at this time, to which," con-
tinues he, " I will now add, it is particularly so,
that it is become a subject of discussion in the
public 'papers." This is very extraordinary from
the very man who first brought it into the public
papers.

A short piece or two, on the importance of
fisheries in general, were anonymously published
some time ago; but as a matter of treaty debate
in Congress, or as a matter of right in itself, with
the arguments and grounds on which they pro-
ceeded, Americanus is originally chargeable
with the inconvenience he pretends to lament. I
with some others had heard, or perhaps knew,
that such a subject was in debate, and tho' I
always laid myself out to give it a meeting in the
82

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

papers whenever it should appear, I never hhited
a thought that might tend to start it.

" To permit the pubHc," says Americanus,
"to be made acquainted with what are to be the
ultimate demands in a proposed treaty is really
something new and extraordinary, if not impo-
litic and absurd." There is a compound of folly
and arrogance in this declaration, which deserves
to be severely censured. Had he said, that to
publish all the arguments of Congress, on which
any claim in a proposed treaty are founded or
objected to, might be inconvenient and in some
cases impolitic, he would have been nearly right ;
but the ultimate demand itself ought to be made
known, together with the rights and reasons on
which that demand is founded.

But who is this gentleman who undertakes to
say, that to permit the public to be made ac-
quainted is really impolitic and absurd? And to
this question I will add, that if he distinguishes
Congress into one body, and the pubHc into an-
other, I should be glad to know in what situation
he places himself, so as not to be subject to his
own charge of absurdity. If he belongs to the
former, he has, according to his own position, a
right to know but not to tell, and if to the latter,
he has neither a right to know nor to tell, and yet

83

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

in some character or other he has done both. If
this gentleman's political principles were never
questioned before, I think they ought to be ques-
tioned now ; for a man must be a strange charac-
ter indeed, whom no known character can suit.

I am the more inclined to suspect Ameri-
CANUSj because he most illiberally, and in contra-
diction to everything sensible and reasonable, en-
deavored, in his former piece, to insinuate that
Governor Johnstone had bribed a party in Con-
gress to insist on the right of the United States
to fish on the Banks of Newfoundland. An in-
sinuation so impolitic and absurd, so wide and
foreign to the purpose of Governor Johnstone's
commission, can only be understood the contrary
way; namely, that he had bribed somebody or
other to insist that the right should not be in-
sisted on.

The expression of Governor Johnstone, as
printed in the English papers, is literally this.
" I do not," says he, " mean to disavow I have
had transactions, where other means have been
used besides persuasion." Governor Johnstone
was in no places in America but Philadelphia
and New York, and these other means must have
been used in one or other, or both of these places.
We have had evidence of one application of his,
S4i

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

with an offer of ten thousand guineas, which
was refused, and treated with the disdain it de-
served; for the offer of a bribe contains in it, to
all men of spirit, the substance of an affront.
But it is strange indeed, if the one that was re-
fused was the onli/ one that was offered. Let
any person read Americanus in your paper of
June twenty-third, and if he can after that accjuit
him of all suspicion, he must be charitable indeed.

But why does not Americanus declare who
he is? This is no time for concealment, neither
are the presses, tho' free, to become the vehicles
of disguised poison. I have had my eye on that
signature these two months past, and to what
lengths the gentleman meant to go himself can
best decide.

In his first piece he loosely introduced his in-
tended politics, and put himself in a situation to
make further advances. His second was a rapid
progress, and his last a retreat. The difference
between the second and last is visible. In the
former of those two he endeavors to invalidate
the right of the United States to fish on the
Banks of Newfoundland, because, forsooth, it
was not mentioned in any of the former charters.
It is very extraordinary that these same charters,
which marked out and were the instruments of

85

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

our dependence^ should now be introduced as de-
scribing the line of our independence.

In the same piece Americanus likewise says,
"it is a question whether the subjects of these
states had any other right to that fishery, than
what they derived from being the subjects of
Great Britain." If this be not advocating the
cause of the enemy, I know not what is. It is
newspaper advice to them to insist on an exclu-
sive right to the fisheries, by insinuating ours to
be only a derivative one from them; which, had
it been the case, as it is not, would have been
very improper doctrine to preach at the first in-
stance of a negotiation. If they have any right,
let them find those rights out themselves. We
shall have enough to do to look to our own side
of the question, and ought not to admit persons
among us to join force with the enemy either in
arms or argument.

Whether Ameeicanus found himself ap-
proaching a stormy latitude, and fearing for the
safety of his bark, thought proper to tack about
in time, or whether he has changed his appetite,
and become an epicure in fish, or liis principles,
and become an advocate for America, must be
left for his own decision; but in his last week's
publication he has surrendered the grounds of
86

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

his former one, and changed the argument from
a matter of right to a matter of supposed conven-
ience only. He no more speaks of our right to
the fisheries as a derivative right from Britain,
in consequence of our formerly being subjects.
Not a syllable of the charters, whose silence he
had produced as invalidating or negativing our
independent right. Neither has he endeavored
to support, or offered to renew, what he had be-
fore asserted — namely, that we were not in pos-
session of the right of fishing at the time of the
Declaration of Independence, or of the signing
the Treaties of Paris; but he has admitted a
theorem which I had advanced in opposition to
his suggestions, and which no man can contra-
dict, viz. that our right to fish on the banks of
Newfoundland is a natural right.

Now if our right is natural, it could not be
derived from subjection, and as we never can but
by our own voluntary consent be put out of the
possession of a natural national right, tho' by the
temporary events of war we may be put out of
the enjoyment of such a right, and as the British
Fishery Act of Parliament in Seventy-six to ex-
clude us was no act of ours, and universally de-
nied by us, therefore, from his own admission, he
has contradicted himself, and allowed that we

87

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

were as fully in possession of the right of fishing
on those banks, both at the time of the Declara-
tion of Independence, and at the time of signing
the Treaties of Paris, as at any period preceding
them.

That he has admitted the natural right in his
last piece, in contradiction to his supposed deriv-
ative right in his former one, will appear from
two or three quotations I shaU make.

1st. He says, The giving up of our right to this
object (the fisheries) and the making an express de-
mand to have it guaranteed to us, or the passing it
over in silence in negotiation, are distinct things.

2d. I am well assured, he says, that there is
not a member in Congress any ways disposed to give
up or relinquish our right to the Newfoundland-
-fishery.

The " right " here admitted cannot be a right
derived from subjection, because we are no
longer British subjects; neither can it be a right
conveyed by charters, because we not only know
no charters now, but those charters we used to
know are silent on the matter in question. It
must therefore be a natural right. Neither does
the situation of America and Britain admit of
any other explanation, because they are, with re-
spect to each other, in a state of nature, not being
even within the law of nations; for the law of
88

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

nations is the law of treaties, compounded with
customary usage, and between America and Brit-
ain there is yet no treaty, nor any national custom
established.

But the third quotation I shall make from his
last piece will prove, from his own words, his
assent to the natural right which I contended for
in behalf of these states, and which he, in his
former piece, impliedly disowned, by putting our
whole right on a question, and making our for-
mer subjection the grounds on which that ques-
tion stood.

I drew no conclusion, he says, to exclude these
states, or bar them from the right which hy nature they
are entitled to with others, as well to the fishery on the
Banks of Newfoundland as to those in the ocean at
large.

As he now admits a natural right , and ap-
pears to contend for it, I ask, why then was his
former piece published, and why was our right
there put in the lowest terms possible? He does
not in that piece even hint, or appear to think of,
or suppose such a thing as a natural right, but
stakes the issue on a question which does not ap-
ply to the case, and went as far as a man dared to
go, in saying we had no right at all. From all
this twisting and turning, this advancing and

89

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

retreating, and appearing to own at last what he
impliedly disowned at first, I think myself justi-
fied in drawing this conclusion, that either Amer-
ICANUS does not know how to conduct an argu-
ment, or he intended to be a traitor if he dared.

The natural right of the United States in
those fisheries is either whole or in part. If to
the whole, she can admit a participation to other
nations. If to a part, she, in consequence of her
natural right to partake, claims her share therein,
which is for as much as she can catch and carry
away. Nature, in her distribution of favors,
seems to have appointed these fisheries as a prop-
erty to the northern division of America, from
Florida upwards, and therefore our claim of an
exclusive right seems to be rationally and con-
sistently founded; but our natural right to what
we can catch is clear, absolute and positive.

Had Americanus intended no more than to
consider our claim, whether it should be made or
not, as a matter of convenience only, which is the
stage he has now brought it to, he ought by no
means to have made even the slightest stroke at
the right itself; because to omit making the
claim in the treaty, and to assign the doubtful-
ness of the right as a reason for the omission, is
to surrender the fisheries upon the insufficiency
90

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

of the pretension, and of consequence to exclude
ourselves from the practise by the silence of the
treaty, and from the right by the reasons upon
record.

Had I time to laugh over my fisJi^ I could in
this place set Americanus up to a very agreeable
ridicule. He has all this while been angling
without a bait, and endeavoring to deceive with
an empty hook, and yet this man says he under-
stands fishing as well as any man in America.
" Very few," says he, " and I speak it without
vanity^ are better acquainted with the fisheries
than myself." If this be true, which I hope it is
not, it is the best reason that can be given for re-
linquishing them, and if made known would, on
the other hand, be a great inducement to Britain
to cede the whole right, because by our being
possessed of a right without knowing how to use
it, she would be under no apprehensions of our
thimiing the ocean, and we should only go out
with our vessels to buy, and not to catch.

If Americanus wished to persuade the Amer-
icans to say nothing about the fisheries in a treaty
with Britain, he ought, as a politician of some
kind or other, to have baited his hook with a
plausible something, and, instead of telling them
that their right was doubtful, he should have

VIIl-8 ^I

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

assured them it was indisputable, that Britain
never meant to question it, that it was needless to
say an3rthing about it, that all nations knew our
rights, and naturally meant to acknowledge
them. But he, like a wiseacre, has run against
the post instead of running past it, and has, by
the arguments he has used, produced a necessity
for doing the very thing he was writing to pre-
vent; and yet this man says he understands fish-
ing as well as any man in America — It must be
a cod indeed that should be catched by him.

Common Sense.
Philadelphia, July 12, 1779,

92

PEACE, AND THE NEWFOUNDLAND
FISHERIES

From the Pennsylvania Gazette,
July 21, 1779.

'THHE importance of the fisheries, Ameri-
-■- CANUS has kept almost totally out of sight.
Why he has done so, his readers will contrive to
guess at, or himself may explain. A bare confes-
sion, loosely scattered here and there, and marked
with the countenance of reluctance, is all he gives
on the subject. Surely, the public might have ex-
pected more from a man, who declares "he can,
without vanity say, that very few are better ac-
quainted with the nature and extent of the Amer-
ican fisheries than himself."

If he really possesses the knowledge he
affirms, he ought to have been as prolific on the
subject as the fish he was treating of: And as he
has not, I am obliged to suspect either the reality
of his knowledge, or the sincerity of his inten-
tions. If the declaration be not true, there are
enough to fix his title; and if true, it shows that a
man may keep company all his life-time with
cod, and be little wiser. But to the point —

There are but two natural sources of wealth

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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

and strength — the earth and the ocean — and to
lose the right to either is, in our situation, to put
up the other to sale. Without the fisheries, inde-
pendence would be a bubble. It would not de-
serve the name ; and however we might, in such a
condition, please ourselves with the jingle of a
word, the consequences that would follow would
soon deprive us even of the title and the music.

I shall arrange the fisheries under the three
following heads :

First. As an emploj^ment.

Secondly. As producing national supply
and commerce, and a means of national wealth.

Thirdly. As a nursery for seamen.

As an employment, by which a living is pro-
cured, it more immediately concerns those who
make it their business; and in this view, which is
the least of the three, such of the states, or parts
thereof, which do not follow fishing, are not so
directly interested as those which do. I call it
the least of the three, because as no man needs
want employment in America, so the change
from one employment to another, if that be all,
is but little to him, and less to anybody else. And
this is the narrow, impolitic light in which some
persons have understood the fisheries.

But when we view them as producing national
94

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

supply and commerce, and a means of national
wealth, we then consider the fish, not the fisher-
men, and regard the consequences of the employ-
ment more than the employment itself; in the
same manner that I distinguish the coat that
clothes me, from the man that made it. In this
view, we neither inquire (unless for curiosity)
who catch the fish, or whether they catched
themselves — how they were catched, or where?
The same supply would be produced, the same
commerce occasioned, and the same wealth cre-
ated, were they, by a natural impulse, to throw
themselves annually on the shore, or be driven
there by a periodical current or storm. And tak-
ing it in this point, it is no more to us, than it
was to the Israelites whether the manna that fed
them was brought there by an angel or an insect,
an eastern or a western breeze, or whether it was
congealed dew, or a concretion of vegetable
juices. It is sufficient that they had manna, and
we have fish.

I imagine myself within compass, when I sup-
pose the fisheries to constitute a fourth part of
the staple commerce of the United States, and
that with this extraordinary advantage, it is a
commerce which interferes with none, and pro-
motes others. Take away a fourth from any part

95

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

and the whole United States suffers, in the same
manner that the blood taken from the arm is
drained from the whole man; and if, by the un-
skilfulness of the operation, the wounded arm
should lose its use, the whole body would want its
service. It is to no purpose for a man to say, I
am not a fisherman, an indigo planter, a rice
planter, a tobacco planter, or a corn planter, any
more than for the leg to say, I am not an arm;
for as, in the latter instance the same blood in-
vigorates both and all by circulation, so, in the
former, each is enriched by the wealth which the
other creates, and fed by the supply the other
raises.

Were it proposed that no town should have a
market, are none concerned therein but butchers?

And in like manner it may be asked, that if
we lose the market for fish, are none affected
thereby but those who catch them? He who digs
the mine, or tills the earth, or fishes in the ocean,
digs, tills and fishes for the world. The employ-
ment and the pittance it procures him are his ; but
the produce itself creates a traffic for thousands,
a supply for millions.

The Eastern States by quitting agriculture
for fishing become customers to the rest, partly
by exchange and partly by the wealth they im-
96

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

port. Of the IVIiddle States, they purchase grain
and flour; of Maryland and Virginia, tobacco,
the food and pastime of the fisherman ; of North
and South Carolina, and Georgia, rice and in-
digo. They may not happen to become the client
of a lawyer in either of these states, but is it any
reason that we are to be deprived of fish, one of
the instruments of commerce, because it comes to
him without a case?

The loss of the fisheries being at this time
blended with other losses, which all nations at war
are more or less subject to, is not particularly felt
or distinguished in the general suspension: And
the men who were employed therein being now
called off into other departments, and supported
by other means, feel not the want of the employ-
ment. War, in this view, contains a temporary
relief for its own misfortunes, by creating a trade
in lieu of the suspended one. But when, with
the restoration of peace, trade shall open, the case
will be very and widely different, and the fisher-
man like the farmer will expect to return to his
occupation in quietude.

As my limits will not allow me to range,
neither have I time if I had room, I shall close
this second head, and proceed to the third, and

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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

finish with some remarks on the state the question
is now said to stand in in Congress.

If as an employment one fourth of the United
States are immediately affected, and if as a
source of national supply and commerce and a
means of national wealth all are deeply interested,
what shall we say when we consider it as a nur-
sery for seamen? Here the question seems to
take almost a reversed turn, for the states which
do not fish are herein more concerned than those
which do. It happens, hy some disposition of
Providence or ourselves, that those particular
states whose employment is to fish are thickly
settled, and secured by their internal strength
from any extensive ravages of an enemy. The
states, all the way from thence to the southward,
beginning at New York, are less populous, and
have less of that ability in proportion to their
extent. Their security, therefore, will hereafter
be in a navy, and without a fishery there can
be no navy worthy of the name.

Has nature given us timber and iron, pitch
and tar, and cordage if we please, for nothing but
to sell or burn? Has experience taught us the
art of ship-building equal to any people on earth
to become the workmen of other nations? Has
she surrounded our coast with fisheries to create
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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

strength to our enemies, and make us the pur-
chasers of our own property? Has she brought
those fisheries almost to our own doors, to insult
us with the prospect, and at the same time that
she bar us from the enjoyment to threaten us
with the constant approach of an enemy? Or
has she given these things for our use, and in-
structed us to combine them for our own pro-
tection? Who, I ask, will undertake to answer
me, Americanus or myself?

What would we now give for thirteen ships
of the line to guard and protect the remote or
weaker parts? How would Carolina feel deliv-
erance from danger, and Georgia from despair,
and assisted by such a fleet become the prison of
their invaders? How would the Whigs of New
York look up and smile with inward satisfaction
at the display of an admiral's command, open-
ing, like a "hey," the door of their confinement?
How would France solace herself at such a union
of force, and reciprocally assisting and assisted
traverse the ocean in safety? Yet all these, or
their similar consequences, are staked upon the
fisheries.

Americanus may understand the "nature of
fisheries," as to season, catching and curing, or
their "extent" as to latitude and longitude; but

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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

as a great political question, involving with it the
means and channels of commerce, and the prob-
ability of empire, he is wholly unequal to the
subject, or he would not have, as he has done,
hmited their effects to "two or three states espe-
cially/' By a judgment acquired from long ac-
quaintance, he may be able to know a cod when
he sees it, or describe the inconveniences or pleas-
ures of a fishing voyage. Or, "born and edu-
cated'"* among them, he may entertain us with
the growling memories of a Newfoundland bear,
or amuse us with the history of a foggy climate
or a smoky hut, with all the winter chit-chat of
fatigue and hardship; and this, in his idea, may
be to "understand the fisheries"

I will venture to predict that America, even
with the assistance of all the fisheries, will never
be a greats much less a dangerous naval power,
and without them she will be scarcely any. I am
established in this opinion from the known cast
and order of things. No country of a large ex-
tent ever yet, I believe, was powerful at sea, or
ever will be. The natural reason of this appears
to be that men do not, in any great numbers,
turn their thoughts to the ocean, till either the
country gets filled, or some peculiar advantage or

* King of England's first speech to the British Parliament.

100

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

necessity tempts them out. A maritime life is a
kind of partial emigration, produced from a por-
tion of the same causes with emigrations in gen-
eral. The ocean becomes covered and the supply
kept up from the constant swarmings of the
landed hive; and as we shall never be able to fill
the whole dominion of the Thirteen States, and
there will ever be new land to cultivate, the
necessity can never take place in America, and of
course the consequences can never happen.

Paradoxical as it may appear, greatness at
sea is the effect of littleness by land. Want of
room and want of employ are the generating
causes. Holland has the most powerful navy in
the world, compared with the small extent of
her crowded country. France and Spain have
too much room, and the soil too luxuriant and
tempting, to be quitted for the ocean. Were not
this the case, and did the abilities for a navy like
those for land service rise in proportion to the
number of inhabitants only, France would rival
more than any two powers in Europe, which is
not the case.

Had not nature thrown the fisheries in our
way and inflicted a degree of natural sterility on
such parts of the continent as lie contiguous
thereto, by way both of forcing and tempting

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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

their inhabitants to the ocean, America, consider-
ing the present cast of the world, would have
wanted the means of defense, for the far greater
part of our seamen, except those produced by the
fisheries, are natives of other countries. And
shall we unwisely trifle with what we ought to
hug as a treasure, and nourish with the utmost
care as a protector? And must the W. H. D.
forever mean that We Have Dunces?

We seek not a fleet to insult the world, or
range in foreign regions for conquests. We have
more land than we can cultivate; more extent
than we can fill. Our natural situation frees us
from the distress of crowded countries, and from
the thirst of ambitious ones. We covet not do-
minion, for we already possess a world; we want
not to export our laboring poor, for where can
they live better, or where can they be more useful?
But we want just such a fleet as the fisheries
will enable us to keep up, and without which we
shall be for ever exposed, a burden to our allies,
and incapable of the necessary defense. The
strength of America, on account of her vast
extent, cannot be collected by land; but since
experience has taught us to sail, and nature has
put the means in our power, we ought in time to
make provision for a navy, as the cheapest, safest,
102

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

best, and most effectual security we can hereafter
depend on.

Having in my first and second publications
endeavored to establish the right of America to
the fisheries, and in this treated of their vast im-
portance, I shall conclude with some remarks on
the subject, as it is now said to stand in Con-
gress, or rather the form in which it is thrown
out to the public.

Americanus says (and I ask not how he came
by his knowledge) that the question is, "Whether
the insisting on an explicit acknowledgment of
that right (meaning the right of fishing on the
Banks of Newfoundland) is either safe^ prudent
or politic/^

Before I enter on the discussion of this point,
it may not be improper to remark, that some inti-
mations were made to Congress in February by
the JNIinister of France, Mr. Gerard, respecting
what the claims of America might be, in case any
treaty of peace should be entered on with the
enemy. And from this, with some account of the
general disposition of the powers of Europe, the
mighty buzz of peace took its rise, and several
who ought to have known better, were whispering
wonderful secrets at almost every tea table.

It was a matter very earli/ supposed by those

103

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

who had any clear judgment, that Spain would
not immediately join in the war, but would he by
as a mediatorial power. If she succeeded therein,
the consequence would be peace ; if she failed, she
would then be perfectly at Hberty to fulfil her en-
gagements with France, etc.

Now in order to enable Spain to act this part,
it was necessary that the claims of Congress in
behalf of America should be made known to their
own Plenipotentiary at Paris, Dr. Franklin, with
such instructions, pubhc or private, as might be
proper to give thereon. But I observe several
members, either so little acquainted with political
arrangements, or supposing their constituents to
be so, that they treat with Mr. Gerard as if that
gentleman was our Minister, instead of the Min-
ister of his Most Christian Majesty, and Ms name
is brought in to a variety of business to which it
has no proper reference. This remark may to
some appear rather severe, but it is a necessary
one. It is not every member of Congress who
acts as if he felt the true importance of his char-
acter, or the dignity of the country he acts for.
And we seem in some instances to forget, that as
France is the great ally of America, so America
is the great ally of France.

It may now be necessary to mention, that no
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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

instructions are yet gone to Dr. Franklin as a
line for negotiation, and the reason is because
none are agreed on. The reason why they are
not agreed on is another point. But had the gen-
tlemen who are for leaving the fisheries out
agreed to have had them put in, instructions
might have been sent more than four months ago ;
and if not exactly convenient, might by this time
have been returned and reconsidered. On whose
side then does the fault lie?

I profess myself an advocate, out of doors,
for clearly, absolutely, and unequivocally ascer-
taining the right of the states to fish on the Banks
of Newfoundland, as one of the first and most
necessary articles. The right and title of the
states thereto I have endeavored to show. The
importance of these fisheries I have endeavored to
prove. What reason then can be given why they
should be omitted?

The seeds of almost every former war have
been sown in the injudicious or defective terms of
the preceding peace. Either the conqueror has
insisted on too much, and thereby held the con-
quered, hke an over-bent bow, in a continual
struggle to snap the cord, or the latter has art-
fully introduced an equivocal article, to take such
advantages under as the turn of future affairs

105

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

might afford. We have only to consult our own
feelings, and each man may from thence learn
the spring of all national policy. And he, who
does not this, may be fortunate enough to effect
a temporary measure, but never will, unless by
accident, accomplish a lasting one.

Perhaps the fittest condition any countries can
be in to make a peace, calculated for duration, is
when neither is conquered, and both are tired.
The first of these suits England and America.
I put England first in this case, because she be-
gan the war. And as she must be and is con-
vinced of the impossibility of conquering Amer-
ica, and as America has no romantic ideas of
extending her conquests to England, the object
on the part of England is lost, and on the part
of America is so far secure, that, unless she un-
wisely conquers herself, she is certain of not being
conquered; and this being the case, there is no
visible object to prevent the opening a negotia-
tion. But how far England is disposed thereto
is a matter wholly unknown, and much to be
doubted.

A movement toward a negotiation, and a
disposition to enter into it, are very distinct
things. The fii'st is often made, as an army af-
fects to retreat, in order to throw an enemy off
106

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

his guard. To prevent which, the most vigorous
preparations ought to be made for war at the
very instant of negotiating for a peace.

Let America make these preparations, and
she may send her terms and claims whenever she
pleases, without any apprehension of appearing
or acting out of character. Those preparations
relate now more to revenue than to force, and
that being wholly and immediately within the
compass of our own abilities, requires nothing but
our consent to accomplish.*

To leave the fisheries wholly out, on any pre-
tense whatever, is to sow the seeds of another war ;
and I will be content to have the name of an idiot
engraven for an epitaph, if it does not produce
that effect. The difficulties which are now given
will become a soil for those seeds to grow in, and
future circumstances will quicken their vegeta-

*A plan has been proposed, and all who are judges have ap-
proved it, for stopping the emissions [of paper money] and raising
a revenue, by subscription for three years without interest, and
in lieu thereof to take every subscriber's taxes out of his sub-
scription, and the balance at the expiration of that time to be
returned. If the states universally go into this measure, they
will acquire a degree of strength and ability fitted either for
peace or war. It is, I am clearly convinced, the best measure
they can adopt, the best interest they can have, and the best
security they can hold. In short, it is carrying on or providing
against war without expense, because the remaining money in
the country, after the subscriptions are made, will be equal in
value to the whole they now hold. Boston has proposed the
same measure.

VIII-9 10*

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

tion. Nations are very fond of appealing to
treaties when it suits their purpose, and tho'
America might afterwards assign her unques-
tioned right as a reason for her silence, yet all
must know that treaties are never to be explained
by presumption, but wholly by what is put in,
and never by what is left out.

There has not yet been an argument given for
omitting the fisheries, but what might have been
given as a stronger reason to the contrary. All
which has been advanced rests only on supposi-
tion, and that failing, leaves them no foundation.
They suppose Britain will not hereafter interrupt
the right; but the case is, they have no right to
that supposition; and it may likewise be parried
by saying — suppose she should? Now the mat-
ter, as I conceive it, stands thus —

If the right to the states to fish on the Banks
of Newfoundland be made and consented to as
an article in a treaty with Britain, it of conse-
quence becomes expressly guaranteed by the
eleventh article of the present treaty of aUiance
with France ; but if it be left out in a treaty with
the former, it is not then guaranteed in the pres-
ent treaty with the latter, because the guaran-
teeing is hmited to "the whole of their (our) pos-
sessions, as the same shall be fixed and assured
108

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

to the said states at the moment of the cessation
of their present war with England." Ai't. II.

Were the states to claim, as a memorial to
be recorded with themselves, an exclusive right to
those fisheries, as a matter of right only, derived
from natural situation, and to propose to their
allies to guarantee to them expressly so much of
that right as we may have occasion to use, and the
states to guarantee to such allies such portions of
the fisheries as they possessed by the last treaty of
peace, there might be some pretense for not
touching on the subject in a treaty with Britain;
because, after the conclusion of the war, she
would hardly venture to interrupt the states in a
right, which, tho' not described in a treaty with
her, should be powerfully guaranteed in a treaty
with others. But to omit it wholly in one treaty,
and to leave it unguaranteed in another, and to
trust it entirely, as the phrase is, to the chapter
of accidents, is too loose, too impolitic a mode of
conducting national business.

Had nothing, says Ameeicanus, been said on the
subject of the fisheries, our fishermen, on the peace,
might have returned to their old stations without in-
terruption.

Is this talking like an American politician, or
a seducing emissary? Who authorized Ameri-

109

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

CANUS to intimate such an assurance ; or how came
he to know what the British Ministry would or
would not hereafter do ; or how can he be certain
they have told him truth? If it be supposition
only, he has, as I before remarked, no right to
make it; and if it be more than supposition, it
must be the effect of secret correspondence. In
the first of these cases he is foolish ; in the second
worse. Does he not see that the fisheries are not
expressly and only conditionally guaranteed, and
that if in such a situation they be omitted in a
treaty with Britain, and she should afterwards
interrupt our right, that the states stand single in
the question, and have no right on the face of the
present treaties to call on their allies for assist-
ance? And yet this man is persuading us to say
nothing about them.

Americanus like some others is mightily fond
of amusing his readers with "the law of nations"
just as if there really was such a law, fixed and
known like the law of the ten commandments.
Whereas the law of nations is in theory the law of
treaties compounded with customary usage, and
in practise just what they can get and keep till it
be taken from them. It is a term without any
regular defined meaning, and as in some instances
we have invented the thing first and given the
110

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

name afterwards, so in this we have invented the
name and the thing is yet to be made.

Some gentlemen say, leave the fisheries to be
settled afterwards in a treaty of commerce. This
is really beginning business at the wrong end.
For a treaty of peace cannot precede the settle-
ment of disputes, but proceeds in consequence of
all controverted points respecting right and do-
minion being adjusted and agreed on. There is
one kind of treaty of commerce which may follow
a treaty of peace, but that respects such articles
only and the mode of trafficking with them as are
produced within, or imported into the known and
described dominions of the parties ; or to the rules
of exchange, or paying or recovering debts, but
never to the dominion itself; and comes more
properly within the province of a consul than the
superior contracting powers.

With these remarks I shall, for the present,
close the subject. It is a new one, and I have
endeavored to give it as systematical an investiga-
tion as the short time allowed and the other busi-
ness I have on hand will admit of. How the af-
fair stands in Congress, or how the cast of the
House is on the question, I have, for several rea-
sons, not inquired into ; neither have I conversed
with any gentleman of that body on the subject.

Ill

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

They have their opinion and I mine; and as I
choose to think my own reasons and write my own
thoughts, I feel the more free the less I consult.

Who the writer of Americanus is I am not
informed. I never said or ever beheved it to be
Mr. Gouverneur Morris, or replied to it upon
that supposition. The manner is not his, neither
do I know that the principles are, and as that gen-
tleman has disavowed it, the assurance is suffi-
cient. I have likewise heard it supposed that Mr.
Deane is the author, and that his friend Mr.
Langworthy carried it to the press. But I
know not who the author is. I have replied to
the piece rather than to the man; tho' for the
sake of relief to the reader and amusement to
myself, he now and then comes in for a stroke.

Common Sense.

Philadelphia, July 17, 1779.

112

THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL
SOCIETY

An Act for incorporating the American Phil-
osophical Society, held at Philadelphia for pro-
moting useful knowledge, February 14, 1780

WHEREAS the cultivation of useful
knowledge, and the advancement of the
liberal Arts and Sciences in any country, have
the most direct tendency toward the improve-
ment of agriculture, the enlargement of trade,
the ease and comfort of life, the ornament of
society, and the ease and happiness of mankind.
And whereas this country of North America,
which the goodness of Providence hath given us
to inherit, from the vastness of its extent, the va-
riety of its climate, the fertility of its soil, the yet
unexplored treasures of its bowels, the multitude
of its rivers, lakes, bays, inlets, and other con-
veniences of navigation, offers to these United
States one of the richest subjects of cultivation,
ever presented to any people upon earth. And
whereas the experience of ages shows that im-
provements of a public nature are best carried on
zy societies of liberal and ingenious men, uniting
their labors without regard to nation, sect, or

113

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

party, in one grand pursuit, alike interesting to
all, whereby mutual prejudices are worn off, a
humane and philosophical Spirit is cherished, and
youth is stimulated to a laudable diligence and
emulation in the pursuit of Wisdom.

And whereas, upon these Principles, divers
public-spirited gentlemen of Pennsylvania and
other American States did heretofore Unite
Themselves, under certain regulations into one
voluntary Society, by the name of "The Ameri-
can Philosophical Societ}^ held at Philadelphia
for Promoting Useful Knowledge," and by their
successful labors and investigations, to the great
credit of America, have extended their reputation
so far, that men of the first eminence in the re-
public of letters in the most civilized nations of
Europe have done honor to their publications,
and desired to be enrolled among their Members :
And whereas the said Society, after having been
long interrupted in their laudable pursuits by
the calamities of war, and the distresses of our
country, have found means to revive their de-
sign, in hopes of being able to prosecute the same
with their former success, and of being further
encouraged therein by the public, for which pur-
pose they have prayed us, "the Representatives
of the Freemen of the Commonwealth of Penn-
114

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

sylvania, that they may be created One Body
Politic and Corporate forever, with such powers,
and privileges, and immunities as may be neces-
sary for answering the valuable purposes which
the said Society had originally in view."

Wherefore, in order to encourage the said
Society in the prosecution and advancement of
all useful branches of knowledge, for the benefit
of their Country and Mankind, Be it enacted,
and it is hereby enacted by the Representatives of
the Freemen of the Commonwealth of Pennsyl-
vania, in General Assembly met, and by the
authority of the same. That the members of the
said Philosophical Society, heretofore volun-tarity
associated for promoting useful knowledge, and
such other persons as have been duly elected
Members and Officers of the same, agreeably to
the fundamental laws and regulations of the said
Society, comprised in twelve sections, prefixed
to their first Volume of Transactions, published
in Philadelphia, and such other laws and regula-
tions as shall hereafter be duly made and enacted
by the Society, according to the tenor hereof, be
and for ever hereafter shall be, One Body Cor-
porate and Politic in Deed, by the name and style
of "The American Philosophical Society held at
Philadelphia, for promoting useful knowledge."

115

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

And whereas — Nations truly civilized (how-
ever unhappily at variance on other accounts)
will never wage war with the Arts and Sciences,
and the Common Interests of Humanity; Be it
further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That
it shall and may be lawful for the said Society,
by their proper officers, at all times, whether in
peace or war, to correspond with learned societies,
as well as individual learned men, of any nation
or country; upon matters merely belonging to
the business of the said Societies, such as the mu-
tual communication of their discoveries and pro-
ceedings in philosophy and science ; the procuring
Books, Apparatus, Natural Curiosities, and such
other articles and intelligence as are usually ex-
changed between learned bodies, for furthering
their common pursuits: Provided always. That
such correspondence of the said Society be at all
times open to the inspection of the supreme Exec-
utive Council of this Commonwealth, etc.

116

MAS PAINE

:\iitions truly civiJUited (how-

at variance on other accounts)

^ war with the ^ ' 'Tid Sciences,

)n Interests r^■ ' 'H^; Be it

1 by the ail ■ l That

uall and may be lawful 1 *c'ty,

by their proper officers, at a r in

e or war, to correspond with > ties,

as well as individual learned men, ot m m

or country; upon matters merely belongirig to

., , . THOMAS JEFFERSON .,

the busmess oi me said: Societies, such as the mu-
tual cSft^*^^;^^^*^*^ fr(^ i^^rOrhginal Painting ^jb^j.^,

Gilbert Stuart in Boiedoin College
ceedings m T^tMiu^iuyihiy an<i >i.:irMcc, Uin jjn^oanng

Books, '*- ^' >^ -'t V 5 ( ' ' ariosities, and such
other aiu <jn arc usually ex-
changed between ^>?rthering
their c' s, That
such (rf' ty be at all
times open to the insp« supreme Exec-
utive Council of this Commonwealth, etc.

116

EMANCIPATION OF SLAVES

PREAMBLE TO THE ACT PASSED BY THE PENNSYL-
VANIA ASSEMBLY MARCH 1, 1780

"t WHEN we contemplate our abhorrence of
-■- that condition, to which the arms and ty-
ranny of Great Britain were exerted to reduce us,
when we look back on the variety of dangers to
which we have been exposed, and how miraculous-
ly our wants in many instances have been sup-
plied, and our deliverances wrought, when even
hope and human fortitude have become unequal
to the conflict, we are unavoidably led to a serious
and grateful sense of the manifold blessings,
which we have undeservedly received from the
hand of that Being, from whom every good and
perfect gift cometh.

Impressed with these ideas, we conceive that
it is our duty, and we rejoice that it is in our
power, to extend a portion of that freedom to
others, which hath been extended to us, and re-
lease them from the state of thralldom, to which
we ourselves were tyrannically doomed, and from
which we have now every prospect of being deliv-
ered. It is not for us to inquire why, in the cre-
ation of mankind, the inhabitants of the several

117

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAIXE

parts of the earth were distinguished by a differ-
ence in feature or complexion. It is sufficient to
know that all are the work of the Almighty
Hand. We find in the distribution of the hu-
man species, that the most fertile as well as the
most barren parts of the earth are inhabited by
men of complexions different from ours, and
from each other ; from w hence we may reasonably
as well as religiously infer, that He, who placed
them in their various situations, hath extended
equally His care and protection to all, and that it
becometh not us to counteract His mercies.

We esteem it a peculiar blessing granted to
us, that we are enabled this day to add one more
step to universal civilization, by removing, as
much as possible, the sorrows of those who have
lived in undeserved bondage, and from which, by
the assumed authority of the Kings of Great
Britain, no effectual legal relief could be ob-
tained. Weaned, by a long course of experience,
from those narrow prejudices and partialities we
had imbibed, we find our hearts enlarged with
kindness and benevolence toward men of all con-
ditions and nations ; and we conceive ourselves at
this particular period particularly called upon by
the blessings which we have received, to manifest
118

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

the sincerity of our profession, and to give a sub-
stantial proof of our gratitude.

2. And whereas the condition of those per-
sons, who have heretofore been denominated
negro and mulatto slaves, has been attended
with circumstances, which not only deprived them
of the common blessings that they were by nature
entitled to, but has cast them into the deepest
afflictions, by an unnatural separation and sale of
husband and wife from each other and from their
children, an injury, the greatness of which can
only be conceived by supposing that we were in
the same unhappy case. In justice, therefore, to
persons so unhappily circumstanced, and who,
having no prospect before them whereon they
may rest their sorrows and their hopes, have no
reasonable inducement to render their services to
society, which they otherwise might, and also in
grateful commemoration of our own happy de-
liverance from that state of unconditional sub-
mission to which we were doomed by the tyranny
of Britain,

3. Be it enacted, etc.

119

PUBLIC GOOD*

(Philadelphia, December 30, 1780)

PREFACE

'nr^HE following pages are on a subject
-^ hitherto little understood but highly inter-
esting to the United States.

They contain an investigation of the claims of
Virginia to the vacant western territory, and of
the right of the United States to the same; with
some outlines of a plan for laying out a new
state, to be applied as a fund, for carrying on
the war, or redeeming the national debt.

The reader, in the course of this publication,
will find it studiously plain, and, as far as I can
judge, perfectly candid. What materials I could
get at I have endeavored to place in a clear line,
and deduce such arguments therefrom as the sub-
ject required. In the prosecution of it, I have
considered myself as an advocate for the right of
the states, and taken no other liberty with the sub-

* This pamphlet was published with the following title : "Pub-
lic Good: Being an Examination into the Claims of Virginia
to the Vacant Western Territory, and of the Right of the United
States to the Same: to Which is Added Proposals for Laying off
a New State, to be Applied as a Fund for Carrying on the War,
or Redeeming the National Debt." — Ed.

120

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

ject than what a counsel would, and ought to do,
in behalf of a chent.

I freely confess that the respect I had con-
ceived, and still preserve, for the character of
Virginia, was a constant check upon those sallies
of imagination, which are fairly and advantage-
ously indulged against an enemy, but ungenerous
when against a friend.

If there is anything I have omitted or mis-
taken, to the injury of the intentions of Virginia
or her claims, I shall gladly rectify it, or if there
is anything yet to add, should the subject require
it, I shall as cheerfully undertake it ; being fully
convinced, that to have matters fairly discussed,
and properly understood, is a principal means of
preserving harmony and perpetuating friendship.

The Author.

121

PUBLIC GOOD

When we take into view the mutual happi-
ness and united interests of the states of America,
and consider the vast consequences to arise from
a strict attention of each, and of all, to every-
thing which is just, reasonable, and honorable;
or the evils that will follow from an inattention
to those principles; there cannot, and ought not,
to remain a doubt but the governing rule of right
and of mutual good must in all public cases
finally preside.

The hand of Providence has cast us into one
common lot, and accomplished the independence
of America, by the unanimous consent of the
several parts, concurring at once in time, manner
and circumstances. No superiority of interest,
at the expense of the rest, induced the one, more
than the other, into the measure. Virginia and
Maryland, it is true, might foresee that their
staple commodity, tobacco, by being no longer
monopolized by Britain, would bring them a bet-
ter price abroad: for as the tax on it in England
was treble its first purchase from the planter,
and they being now no longer compelled to send
it under that obligation, and in the restricted
122

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

manner they formerly were, it is easy to see that
the article, from the alteration of the circum-
stances of trade, will, and daily does, turn out
to them with additional advantages.

But this being a natural consequence, pro-
duced by that common freedom and indepen-
dence of which all are partakers, is therefore an
advantage they are entitled to, and on which the
rest of the states can congratulate them without
feeling a wish to lessen, but rather to extend it.
To contribute to the increased prosperity of an-
other, by the same means which occasion our
own, is an agreeable reflection; and the more
valuable any article of export becomes, the more
riches will be introduced into and spread over
the continent.

Yet this is an advantage which those two
states derive from the independence of America,
superior to the local circumstances of the rest;
and of the two it more particularly belongs to
Virginia than Maryland, because the staple com-
modity of a considerable part of Maryland is
flour, which, as it is an article that is the growth
of Europe as well as of America, cannot obtain
a foreign market but by underselling, or at least
by limiting it to the current price abroad. But
tobacco commands its own price. It is not a
viii-io 123

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

plant of almost universal growth, like wheat.
There are but few soils and climes that produce
it to advantage, and before the cultivation of it
in Virginia and Maryland, the price was from
four to sixteen shilUngs sterling a pound in
England.*

But the condition of the vacant western ter-
ritory of America makes a very different case to
that of the circumstances of trade in any of the
states. Those very lands, formed, in contempla-
tion, the fund by which the debt of America
would in the course of years be redeemed. They
were considered as the common right of all; and
it is only till lately that any pretension of claim
has been made to the contrary.

That difficulties and differences will arise in
communities, ought always to be looked for.
The opposition of interests, real or supposed, the
variety of judgments, the contrariety of temper,
and, in short, the whole composition of man, in
his individual capacity, is tinctured with a dispo-
sition to contend; but in his social capacity there
is either a right, which, being proved, terminates
the dispute, or a reasonableness in the measure,

* See Sir Dalby Thomas's "Historical Accoxint of the rise and
growth of the West India CJolonies."

124

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

where no direct right can be made out, which de-
cides or compromises the matter.

As I shall have frequent occasion to mention
the word right , I wish to be clearly understood in
my definition of it. There are various senses in
which this term is used, and custom has, in many
of them, afforded it an introduction contrary to
its true meaning. We are so naturally inclined
to give the utmost degree of force to our own
case, that we call every pretension, however
founded, a right; and by this means the term fre-
quently stands opposed to justice and reason.

After Theodore was elected King of Corsica,
not many years ago, by the mere choice of the
natives, for their own convenience in opposing
the Genoese, he went over to England, run him-
self in debt, got himself into jail, and on his
release therefrom, by the benefit of an act of in-
solvency, he surrendered up what he called his
kingdom of Corsica, as a part of his personal
property, for the use of his creditors; some of
whom may hereafter call this a charter, or by
any other name more fashionable, and ground
thereon what they may term a right to the sov-
ereignty and property of Corsica. But does not
justice abhor such an action both in him and

125

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

them, under the prostituted name of a rightj and
must not laughter be excited wherever it is told?

A right, to be truly so, must be right within
itself: yet many things have obtained the name
of rights, which are originally founded in wrong.
Of this kind are all rights by mere conquest,
power or violence. In the cool moments of re-
flection we are obliged to allow, that the mode by
which such a right is obtained, is not the best
suited to that spirit of universal justice which
ought to preside equally over all mankind.
There is something in the establishment of such
a right, that we wish to slip over as easily as pos-
sible, and say as little about as can be. But in
the case of a right founded in right, the mind is
carried cheerfully into the subject, feels no com-
punction, suffers no distress, subjects its sensa-
tions to no violence, nor sees an3rthing in its way
which requires an artificial smoothing.

From this introduction I proceed to examine
into the claims of Virginia; first, as to the right,
secondly as to the reasonableness, and lastly, as
to the consequences.

The name, Virginia, originally bore a differ-
ent meaning to what it does now. It stood in the
place of the word North America, and seems to
have been a name comprehensive of all the Eng-
126

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

lish settlements or colonies on the continent, and
not descriptive of any one as distinguished from
the rest. All to the southward of the Chesa-
peake, as low as the Gulf of Mexico, was called
South Virginia, and all to the northward, North
Virginia, in a similar line of distinction, as we
now call the whole continent North and South
America.*

The first charter, or patent, was to Sir W^al-
ter Raleigh by Queen Elizabeth, of England, in
the year 1583, and had neither name nor bounds.
Upon Sir Walter's return, the name Virginia
was given to the whole country, including the
now United States. Consequently the present
Virginia, either as a province or state, can set up
no exclusive claim to the western territory under
this patent, and that for two reasons: first, be-
cause the words of the patent run to Sir Walter
Raleigh, and such persons as he should nominate,
themselves and their successors; which is a line
of succession Virginia does not pretend to stand
in; and secondly, because a prior question would
arise, namely, who are to be understood by Vir-
ginians under this patent? and the answer would
be, all the inhabitants of America, from New-
England to Florida.

* Oldmixon's "History of Virginia."

127

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

This patent, therefore, would destroy their
exclusive claim, and invest the right collectively
in the thirteen states.

But it unfortunately happened, that the set-
tlers under this patent, partly from misconduct,
the opposition of the Indians, and other calam-
ities, discontinued the process, and the patent
became extinct.

After this, James I, who, in the year
1602, succeeded Elizabeth, issued a new patent,
which I come next to describe.

This patent differed from the former in this
essential point, that it had limits, whereas the
other had none: the former was intended to pro-
mote discoveries wherever they could be made,
which accounts why no limits were affixed, and
this to settle discoveries already made, which like-
wise assigns a reason why limits should be de-
scribed.

In this patent were incorporated two com-
panies, called the South Virginia Company, and
the North Virginia Company, and sometimes the
London Company, and the Plymouth Company.

The South Virginia or London Company

was composed chiefly of London adventurers;

the North Virginia or Plymouth Company was

made up of adventurers from Plymouth in Dev-

128

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

onshire and other persons of the western part of
England.

Though they were not to fix together, yet
they were allowed to choose their places of settle-
ment anywhere on the coast of America, then
called Virginia, between the latitudes of 34 and
45 degrees, which was a range of 760 miles: the
South Company was not to go below 34 degrees,
nor the North Company above 45 degrees. But
the patent expressed, that as soon as they had
made their choice, each was to become hmited to
50 miles each way on the coast, and 100 up the
country; so that the grant to each country was
a square of 100 miles, and no more. The North
Virginia or Plymouth Company settled to the
eastward, and in the year 1614, changed the
name, and called that part New England. The
South Virginia or London Company settled near
Cape Henry.

This then cannot be the patent of boundless
extent, and that for two reasons: first, because
the limits are described, namely, a square of 100
miles ; and secondly, because there were two com-
panies of equal rights included in the same
patent.

Three years after this, that is, in the year
1609, the South Virginia Company applied for

129

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

new powers from the Crown of England, which
were granted them in a new patent, and the
boundaries of the grant enlarged; and this is the
charter, or patent, on which some of the present
Virginians ground their pretension to boundless
territory.

The first reflection that presents itself on this
enlargement of the grant is, that it must be sup-
posed to bear some intended degree of reasonable
comparison to that which it superseded. The
former could not be greater than a square of one
hundred miles ; and this new one being granted in
lieu of that, and that within the space of three
years, and by the same person, James I,
who was never famed either for profusion or
generosity, cannot, on a review of the time and
circumstances of the grant, be supposed a very
extravagant or very extraordinary one. If a
square of one hundred miles was not sufficiently
large, twice that quantity was as much as could
well be expected or solicited ; but to suppose that
he, who had caution enough to confine the first
grant within moderate bounds, should, in so short
a space as three years, supersede it by another
grant of many million times greater extent, is
on the face of the affair, a circumstantial nullity.

Whether this patent, or charter, was in exist-
130

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

ence or not at the time the Revolution commenced,
is a matter I shall hereafter speak to, and con-
fine myself in this place to the limits which the
said patent or charter lays down. The words are
as follow:

Beginning at the cape or point of land called
Cape or Point Comfort, thence all along the seacoast
to the NOETHWARD 200 miles, and from the said Point
or Cape Comfort, all along the seacoast to the south-
ward, 200 miles ; and all that space or circuit of land
lying from the seacoast of the precinct aforesaid up
into the land throughout, from sea to sea, west and
northwest.

The first remark I shall offer on the words of
this grant is, that they are uncertain, obscure,
and unintelligible, and may be construed into
such a variety of contradictory meanings as to
leave at last no meaning at all.

Whether the two hundred miles each way
from Cape Comfort, were to be on a straight line,
or ascertained by following the indented line of
the coasts that is, ^^all along the seacoast/' in and
out as the coast lay, cannot now be fulty deter-
mined; because, as either will admit of supposi-
tion, and nothing but supposition can be pro-
duced, therefore neither can be taken as positive.
Thus far may be said, that had it been intended
to be a straight line, the word straight ought to

131

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

have been inserted, which would have made the
matter clear; but as no inference can be well
drawn to the advantage of that which does not
appear^, against that which does, therefore the
omission implies negatively in favor of the coast-
indented line, or that the 400 miles were to be
traced on the windings of the coast, that is ^^all
along the seacoast"

But what is meant by the words ''west and
northwest" is still more unintelligible. Whether
they mean a west line and a northwest hne, or
whether they apply to the general lying of the
land from the Atlantic, without regard to lines,
cannot again be determined. But if they are
supposed to mean lines to be run, then a new
difficulty of more magnitude than all the rest
arises; namely, from which end of the extent on
the coast is the west line and the northwest hne
to be set off? As the difference in the contents
of the grant, occasioned by transposing them, is
many hundred millions of acres; and either in-
cludes or excludes a far greater quantity of land
than the whole thirteen United States contain.
In short, there is not a boundary in this grant
that is clear, fixed and defined. The coast line is
uncertain, and that being the base on which the
others are to be formed, renders the whole un-
132

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

certain. But even if this line was admitted, in
either shape, the other boundaries would still be
on supposition, till it might be said there is no
boundary at all, and consequently no charter;
for words which describe nothing can give
nothing.

The advocates for the Virginia claim, laying
hold of these ambiguities, have explained the
grant thus :

Four hundred miles on the sea-coast, and
from the south point a w^est line to the great
South Sea, and from the north point a northwest
line to the said South Sea. The figure which
these lines produce will be thus:

I

S, / New- New-

^ / York England.

^ 200 S. I 200 N.

But why, I ask, must the west land hne be
set off from the south point, any more than the
north point? The grant or patent does not say

133

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

from which it shall be, neither is it clear that a
line is the thing intended by the words: but ad-
mitting that it is, on what grounds do the claim-
ants proceed in making this choice? The answer,
I presume, is easily given, namely, because it is
the most beneficial explanation to themselves
they can possibly make ; as it takes in many thou-
sand times more extent of country than any other
explanation would. But this, though it be a
very good reason to them, is a very bad reason to
us; and though it may do for the claimants to
hope upon, will not answer to plead upon;
especially to the very people, who, to confirm
the partiality of the claimants' choice, must re-
linquish their own right and interest.

Why not set off the west land line from the
north end of the coast line, and the northwest
line from the south end of the same? There is
some reason why this should be the construction,
and none why the other should.

1st, Because if the line of two hundred miles
each way from Cape Comfort, be traced by fol-
lowing the indented line of the coast, which seems
to be the imphed intention of the words, and a
west line set oif from the north end, and a north-
west line from the south end, these lines will all
unite (which the other construction never can)
134

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

and form a complete triangle, the contents of
which will be about twenty-nine or thirty millions
of acres, or something larger than Pennsylvania ;
and

2d, Because this construction is following
the order of the lines expressed in the grant ; for
the first mentioned coast line, which is to the
northward of Cape Comfort, and the first men-
tioned land hne, which is the west line, have a
numerical relation, being the first mentioned of
each; and implies, that the west line was to be
set off from the north point and not from the
south point; and consequently the two last men-
tioned of each have the same numerical relation,
and again implies that the northwest hne was to
be set off from the south point, and not from the
north point. But why the claimants should break
through the order of the lines, and contrary to
imphcation, join the first mentioned of the one,
to the last mentioned of the other, and thereby
produce a shapeless monster, for which there is
no name nor any parallel in the world, either as
to extent of soil and sovereignty, is a construc-
tion that cannot be supported.

The figure produced by following the order
of the lines is as follows * :

* N. B. If the reader will cast his tje. again over the words of

135

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

I presume that if 400 miles be traced by fol-
lowing the inflexes of any seashore, that the two
extremes will not be more than 300 miles distant
from each other, on a straight line. Therefore,
to find the contents of a triangle, whose base is
300 miles, multiply the length of the base into
half the perpendicular, which, in this case, is the
west line, and the product will be the answer:

300 miles, length of the base.

150 half the perpendicular (supposing it a right-angled
triangle).

15000
SOO

45,000 contents of the grant in square miles.
640 acres in a square mile.

1800000
270000

28,800,000 contents in square acres.

the patent on p. 38, [pamphlet edition] he will perceive the numer-
ical relation alluded to, by observing, that the first mentioned
coast line and the first mentioned land line are distinguished by
CAPITALS. And the last mentioned of each by italics, which I have
chosen to do to illustrate the explanation.

136

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

Nor will anyone undertake to say, that this
explanation is not as fairly drawn (if not more
so) from the words themselves, as any other that
can be offered? Because it is not only justified
by the exact words of the patent, grant, or char-
ter, or any other name by which it may be called,
but by their implied meaning; and is likewise of
such contents as may be supposed to have been
intended; whereas the claimants' explanation is
without bounds, and beyond everything that is
reasonable. Yet, after all, who can say what was
the precise meaning of terms and expressions so
loosely formed, and capable of such a variety
of contradictory interpretations?

Had the order of the lines been otherwise
than they are in the patent, the reasonableness
of the thing must have directed the manner in
which they should be connected: but as the claim
is founded in unreasonableness, and that unrea-
sonableness endeavored to be supported by a
transposition of the lines, there remains no pre-
tense for the claim to stand on.

Perhaps those who are interested in the claim-
ants' explanation will say that as the South Sea
is spoken of, the lines must be as they explain
them, in order to reach it.

To this I reply ; first, that no man then knew

137

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

how far it was from the Atlantic to the South
Sea, as I shall presently show, but believed it to
be but a short distance: and,

Secondly, that the uncertain and ambiguous
manner in which the South Sea is alluded to (for
it is not mentioned by name, but only "from sea
to sea") serves to perplex the patent, and not to
explain it ; and as no right can be founded on an
ambiguity, but on some proof cleared of am-
biguity, therefore the allusive introduction of
"from sea to sea" can yield no service to the
claim.

There is likewise an ambiguous mention
made of two lands in this patent, as well as of two
seas; viz. and all that "space or circuit of land
lying from the seacoast of the precinct aforesaid
up into the land throughout from sea to sea"

On which I remark, that the two lands here
mentioned have the appearance of a major and
a minor, or the greater out of which the less is
to be taken : and the term from "sea to sea" may
be said to apply descriptively to the land through-
out and not to the space or circuit of land pat-
ented to the company" ; in a similar manner that
a former patent described a major of 706 miles
in extent, out of which the minor, or square of
one hundred miles, was to be chosen.
138

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

But to suppose that because the South Sea is
darkly alluded to, it must therefore ( at whatever
distance it might be, which then nobody knew,
or for whatever purpose it might be introduced)
be made a certain boundary, and that without
regard to the reasonableness of the matter, or the
order in which the Hues are arranged, which is the
only implication the patent gives for setting off
the land lines, is a supposition that contradicts
everything which is reasonable.

The figure produced by following the order
of the lines will be complete in itself, let the dis-
tance to the South Sea be more or less; because,
if the land througJiout from sea to sea had not
been sufficiently extensive to admit the west land
line and the northwest land line to close, the
South Sea, in that case, would have eventually
become a boundary ; but if the extent of the land
throughout from sea to sea^ was so great that the
lines closed without reaching the said South Sea,
the figure was complete without it.

Wherefore, as the order of the fines, when
raised on the indented coast line, produces a reg-
ular figure of reasonable dimensions, and of
about the same contents, though not of the same
shape, which Virginia now holds within the Alle-
ghany Mountains ; and by transposing them, an-
viii-n 139

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

other figure is produced, for which there is no
name, and cannot be completed, as I shall pres-
ently explain, and of an extent greater than one
half of Europe, it is needless to offer any other
arguments to show that the order of the lines
must be the rule, if any rule can be drawn from
the words, for ascertaining from which point the
west line and northwest line were to be set off.

Neither is it possible to suppose any other rule
could be followed; because a northwest line set
off two hundred miles above Cape Comfort,
would not only never touch the South Sea, but
would form a spiral Hne of infinite windings
round the globe, and after passing over the
northern parts of America and the frozen ocean,
and then into the northern parts of Asia, would,
when eternity should end, and not before, ter-
minate in the North Pole.

This is the only manner in which I can ex-
press the effect of a northwest line, set off as
above; because as its direction must always be
between the North and the West, it consequently
can never get into the Pole nor yet come to a
rest, and on the principle that matter or space is
capable of being eternally divided, must proceed
on forever.

But it was a prevailing opinion, at the time
140

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

this patent was obtained, that the South Sea
was at no great distance from the Atlantic, and
therefore it was needless, under that supposition,
to regard which way the lines should be run;
neither need we wonder at this error in the Eng-
lish Government respecting America then, when
we see so many and such glaring ones now, for
which there is much less excuse.

Some circumstances favored this mistake.
Admiral Sir Francis Drake, not long before this,
had, from the top of a mountain in the Isthmus
of Darien, which is the center of North and
South America, seen both the South Sea and the
Atlantic, the width of the part of the continent
where he then was, not being above 70 miles;
whereas its width opposite Chesapeake Bay is as
great, if not greater, than in any other part,
being from sea to sea about the distance it is from
America to England. But this could not then
be known, because only two voyages had been
made across the South Sea; the one by the ship
in which Magellan sailed, who died on his pas-
sage, and which was the first ship which sailed
around the world, and the other by Sir Francis
Drake ; but as neither of these sailed into a north-
ern latitude in that ocean, high enough to fix the
longitude of the Western coast of America from

141

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

the Eastern, the distance across was entirely on
supposition, and the errors they then ran into ap-
pear laughable to us who now know what the dis-
tance is.

That the Company expected to come at the
South Sea without much trouble or traveling,
and that the great body of land which intervened,
so far from being their view in obtaining the
charter, became their disappointment, may be
collected from a circumstance mentioned in
Stith's "History of Virginia."

He relates, that in the year 1608, which was
at the time the Company were soliciting this pat-
ent, they fitted up in England "a barge for Cap-
tain Newport, (who was afterwards one of the
joint deputy governors under the very charter
we are now treating of) , which, for convenience
of carriage, might be taken into five pieces, and
with which he and his company were instructed
to go up James River as far as the falls thereof,
to discover the country of the Monakins, and
from thence they were to proceed, carrying their
barge beyond the falls to convey them to the
South Sea; being ordered not to return without
a lump of gold, or a certainty of the said sea."
And Hutchinson, in his history of New Eng-
land, which was called North Virginia at the time
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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

this patent was obtained, says "the geography of
this part of America was less understood than
at present. A Hne to the Spanish settlements
was imagined to be much shorter than it really
was. Some of Champlain's people in the be-
ginning of the last century, who had been but a
few days' march from Quebec, returned with
great joy, supposing that from the top of a high
mountain, they had discovered the South Sea."

From these matters, which are evidences on
record, it appears that the adventurers had no
knowledge of the distance it was to the South
Sea, but supposed it to be no great way from the
Atlantic; and also that great extent of territory
was not their object, but a short communication
with the southern ocean, by which they might
get into the neighborhood of the Gold Coast, and
likewise carry on a commerce with the East
Indies.

Having thus shown the confused and various
interpretations this charter is subject to, and that
it may be made to mean anything and nothing;
I proceed to show, that, let the limits of it be
more or less, the present state of Virginia does
not, and cannot, as a matter of right, inherit
under it.

143

.WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

I shall open this part of the subject by put-
ting the following case:

Either Virginia stands in succession to the
London Company, to whom the charter was
granted, or to the Crown of England. If to the
London Company, then it becomes her, as an out-
set in the matter, to show who they were, and
likewise that they were in possession to the com-
mencement of the Revolution. If to the Crown,
then the charter is of consequence superseded;
because the Crown did not possess territories by
charter, but by prerogative without charter.
The notion of the Crown chartering to itself is a
nullity; and in this case, the unpossessed lands,
be they little or much, are in the same condition
as if they had never been chartered at all; and
the sovereignty of them devolves to the sover-
eignty of the United States.

The charter or patent of 1609, as well as that
of 1606, was to Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George
Summers, the Rev. Richard Hacluit, Prebend of
Westminster, and others; and the government
was then proprietary. These proprietors, by vir-
tue of the charter of 1609, chose Lord Delaware
for their governor, and Sir Thomas Gates, Sir
George Summers, and Captain Newport, (the
person who was to go with a boat to the South
144

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

Sea) , joint deputy governors. Was this the
form of government either as to soil or constitu-
tion at the time the present Revolution com-
menced? If not, the charter was not in being;
for it matters not to us how it came to be out of
beings so long as the present Virginians, or their
ancestors, neither are, nor were sufferers by the
change then made.

But suppose it could not be proved to be in
being, which it cannot, because being, in a charter,
is power, it would only prove a right in behalf
of the London Company of adventurers ; but how
that right is to be disposed of is another question.
We are not defending the right of the London
Company, deceased 150 years ago, but taking up
the matter at the place where we found it, and
so far as the authority of the Crown of England
was exercised when the Revolution commenced.
The charter was a contract between the Crown of
England and those adventurers for their own
emolument, and not between the Crown and the
people of Virginia; and whatever was the occa-
sion of the contract becoming void, or surren-
dered up, or superseded, makes no part of the
question now.

It is sufficient that when the United States

succeeded to sovereignty they found no such con-

145

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

tract in existence, or even in litigation. They
found Virginia under the authority of the Crown
of England both as to soil and government, sub-
ject to quit-rents to the Crown and not to the
Company, and had been so for upwards of 150
years : and that an instrument or deed of writing,
of a private nature, as all proprietary contracts
are, so far as land is concerned, and which is now
historically known, and in which Virginia was
no party, and to which no succession in any line
can be proved, and has ceased for 150 years,
should now be raked from oblivion and held up
as a charter whereon to assume a right to bound-
less territory, and that by a perversion of the
order of it, is something very singular and ex-
traordinary.

If there was any innovation on the part of
the Crown, the contest rested between the Crown
and the proprietors, the London Company, and
not between Virginia and the said Crown. It
was not her charter; it was the Company's char-
ter, and the only parties in the case were the
Crown and the Company.

But why, if Virginia contends for the immu-
tability of charters, has she selected this in prefer-
ence to the two former ones ? All her arguments,
arising from this principle, must go to the first
146

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

charter and not to the last; but by placing them
to the last, instead of the first, she admits a fact
against her principle; because, in order to es.tab-
lish the last, she proves the first to be vacated by
the second in the space of twenty -three years, the
second to be vacated by the third in the space of
three years; and why the third should not be va-
cated by the fourth form of government, issuing
from the same power with the former two, and
which took place about twenty-five years after,
and continued in being for one hundred and fifty
years since, and under which all her public and
private business was transacted, her purchases
made, her warrants for survey and patents for
land obtained, is too mysterious to account for.
Either the re-assumption of the London Com-
pany's charter into the hands of the Crown was
an usurpation, or it was not. If it was, then,
strictly speaking, is everything which Virginia
has done under that usurpation illegal, and she
may be said to have lived in the most curious
species of rebellion ever known ; rebellion against
the London Company of adventurers. For if
the charter to the Company ( for it was not to the
Virginians) ought to be in being now, it ought
to have been in being then; and why she should

admit its vacation then and reject it now, is un-

147

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

accountable; or why she should esteem her pur-
chases of land good which were then made con-
trary to this charter, and now contend for the
operation of the same charter to possess new ter-
ritory by, are circumstances which cannot be
reconciled.

But whether the charter, as it is called, ought
to be extinct or not, cannot make a question with
us. All the parties concerned in it are deceased,
and no successors, in any regular line of succes-
sion, appear to claim. Neither the London Com-
pany of adventurers, their heirs or assigns, were
in possession of the exercise of this charter at
the commencement of the Revolution ; and there-
fore the state of Virginia does not, in point of
fact, succeed to and inherit from the Company.

But, say they, we succeed to and inherit from
the Crown of England, which was the immediate
possessor of the sovereignty at the time we en-
tered, and had been so for one hundred and fifty
years.

To say this, is to say there is no charter at
all. A charter is an assurance from one party to
another, and cannot be from the same party to
itself.

But before I enter further on this case, I
shall concisely state how this charter came to be
148

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

re-assumed by the power which granted it, the
Crown of England.

I have abeady stated that it was a proprietary
charter, or grant, to Sir Thomas Gates and
others, who were called the London Company,
and sometimes the South Virginia Company, to
distinguish them from those who settled to the
eastward (now New England) and were then
called the North Virginia or Plymouth Com-
pany.

Oldmixon's "History of Virginia" (in his ac-
count of the British Empire in America) pub-
lished in the year 1708, gives a concise progress
of the affair. He attributes it to the misconduct,
contentions and mismanagements of the proprie-
tors, and their innovations upon the Indians,
which had so exasperated them, that they fell on
the settlers, and destroyed at one time three hun-
dred and thirty-four men, women and children.

Some time after this massacre, (says he), several
gentlemen in England procured grants of land from
the Company, and others came over on their private
accounts to make settlements ; among the former was
one Captain Martin, who was named to be of the coun-
cil. This man raised so many differences among them,
that new distractions followed, which the Indians ob-
serving, took heart, and once more fell upon the set-
tlers on the borders, destroying, without pitying either
age, sex, or condition.

\ 149

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

These and other calamities being chiefly imputed
to the mismanagement of the proprietors, whose losses
had so discouraged most of their best members, that
they sold their shares, and Charles I., on his accession
to the throne, dissolved the Company, and took the
colony into his own immediate direction. He appointed
the governor and council himself, ordered all patents
and processes to issue in his own name, and reserved
a quit-rent of two shillings sterling for every hundred
acres.

Thus far our author. Now it is impossible
for us at this distance of time to say what were all
the exact causes of the change; neither have we
any business with it. The Company might sur-
render it, or they might not, or they might for-
feit it by not fulfilling conditions, or they might
sell it, or the Crown might, as far as we know,
take it from them. But what are either of these
cases to Virginia, or any other which can be pro-
duced? She was not a party in the matter. It
was not her charter, neither can she ingraft any
right upon it, or suffer any injury under it.

If the charter was vacated, it must have been
by the London Company ; if it was surrendered,
it must be by the same ; and if it was sold, nobody
else could sell it ; and if it was taken from them,
nobody else could lose it; and yet Virginia calls
this her charter, which it was not within her power
to hold, to sell, to vacate, or to lose.
150

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

But if she puts her right upon the ground
that it never was sold, surrendered, lost, or
vacated, by the London Company, she admits
that if they had sold, surrendered, lost, or vacated
it, it would have become extinct, and to her no
charter at all. And in this case, the only thing to
prove is the fact, which is, has this charter been
the rule of government, and of purchasing or
procuring unappropriated lands in Virginia,
from the time it was granted to the time of the
Revolution? Answer — the charter has not been
the rule of government, nor of purchasing and
procuring lands, neither have any lands been pur-
chased or procured under its sanction or authority
for upwards of one hundred and fifty years.

But if she goes a step further, and says, that
they could not vacate, surrender, sell, or lose
it, by any act they could do, so neither could
they vacate, surrender, sell or lose that of
1606, which was three years prior to this: and
this argument, so far from estabhshing the
charter of 1609, would destroy it; and in its stead
confirm the preceding one, which limited the
Company to a square of one hundred miles. And
if she still goes back to that of Sir Walter
Raleigh, that only places her in the light of
Americans common with all.

151

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

The only fact that can be clearly proved is,
that the Crown of England exercised the power
of dominion and government in Virginia, and of
the disposal of the lands, and that the charter
had neither been the rule of government or pur-
chasing land for upwards of one hundred and
fifty years, and this places Virginia in succession
to the Crown, and not to the Company. Conse-
quently it proves a lapse of the charter into the
hands of the Crown by some means or other.

Now to suppose that the charter could return
into the hands of the Crown and yet remain in
force, is to suppose that a man could be bound
by a bond of obligation to himself.

Its very being in the hands of the Crown, from
which it issued, is a cessation of its existence ; and
an effectual unchartering all that part of the
grant which was not before disposed of. And
consequently the state of Virginia, standing thus
in succession to the Crown, can be entitled to no
more extent of country as a state under the
Union, than what it possessed as a province under
the Crown. And all lands exterior to these
bounds, as well of Virginia as the rest of the
states, devolve, in the order of succession, to the
sovereignty of the United States for the benefit

of aU.

152

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

And this brings the case to what were the
limits of Virginia as a province under the Crown
of England.

Charter it had none. Its limits then rested
at the discretion of the authority to which it was
subject. Maryland and Pennsylvania became its
boundary to the eastward and northward, and
North Carolina to the southward, therefore the
boundary to the westward was the only principal
line to be ascertained.

As Virginia, from a proprietary soil and gov-
ernment was become what then bore the name of
a royal one, the extent of the province, as the
order of things then stood (for something must
always be admitted whereon to form a begin-
ning) was wholly at the disposal of the Crown
of England, who might enlarge or diminish, or
erect new governments to the westward, by the
same authoritative right that Virginia now can
divide a county into two, if too large, or too in-
convenient.

To say, as has been said, that Pennsylvania,

Maryland, and North Carolina, were taken out

of Virginia, is no more than to say, they were

taken out of America; because Virginia was the

common name of all the country. North and

South ; and to say they were taken out of the char-

153

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

tered limits of Virginia, is likewise to say noth-
ing; because, after the dissolution or extinction
of the proprietary company, there was nobody to
whom any provincial limits became chartered.
The extinction of the Company was the extinction
of the chartered limits. The patent could not
survive the Company, because it was to them a
right, which, when they expired, ceased to be any-
body's else in their stead.

But to return to the western boundary of
Virginia at the commencement of the Revolution.

Charters, like proclamations, were the sole act
of the Crown, and if the former were adequate
to fix limits to the lands which it gave away, sold,
or otherwise disposed of, the latter were equally
adequate to fix limits or divisions to those which
it retained; and therefore, the western limits of
Virginia, as the proprietary Company was ex-
tinct and consequently the patent with it, must
be looked for in the line of proclamations.

I am not fond of quoting these old remains
of former arrogance, but as we must begin some-
where, and as the states have agreed to regulate
the right of each state to territory, by the con-
dition each stood in with the Crown of England
at the commencement of the Revolution, we have
154

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

no other rule to go by; and any rule which can
be agreed on is better than none.

From the proclamation then of 1763, the
western limits of Virginia, as a province under
the Crown of England are described so as not to
extend beyond the heads of any of the rivers
which empty themselves into the Atlantic, and
consequently the limits did not pass over the Alle-
ghany Mountains.

The following is an extract from the proc-
lamation of 1763, so far as respects boundary:

And whereas, it is just and reasonable and essential
to our interest, and the security of our colonies, that the
several nations or tribes of Indians, with whom we are
connected, and who live under our protection, should
not be molested or disturbed in the possession of such
parts of our dominions and territories, as, not having
been ceded to, or purchased by us, are reserved to them
or any of them as their hunting grounds; we do there-
fore, with the advice of our privy council, declare it
to be our royal will and pleasure that no governor, or
commander-in-chief, in any of our colonies of Quebec,
East Florida, or West Florida, do presume upon any
pretense whatever, to grant warrants of survey, or
pass any patents for lands beyond the bounds of their
respective governments, as described in their commis-
sions: as ALSO that no governor or commander-in-chief
of our colonies or plantations in America, do presume,
for the present, and until our further pleasure be
known, to grant warrants of survey or pass patents
for any lands beyond the heads or sources of any of the
rivers which fall into the Atlantic Ocean, from the west

VIII-18 155

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

or northwest^ or upon any lands whatever, which not
having been ceded to or purchased by us, as aforesaid,
are reserved unto the said Indians, or any of them.

And we do further declare it to be our royal will
and pleasure, for the present, as aforesaid, to reserve
under our sovereignty, protection, and dominion, for
the use of the said Indians, all lands and territories, not
included within the hmits of our said three new gov-
ernments, or within the limits of the territory granted
to the Hudson's Bay Company ; as also, all the lands and
territories lying to the westward of the sources of the
rivers, which fall into the sea from the west and north-
west, as aforesaid; and we do hereby strictly forbid on
pain of our displeasure, all our loving subjects from
making any purchases or settlements whatever, or tak-
ing possession of any of the lands above reserved, with-
out our especial leave and license for that purpose first
obtained.

And we do further strictly enjoin and require all
persons whatever, who have either wilfully or inad-
vertently seated themselves upon any lands within the
countries above described, or upon any other lands,
which, not having been ceded to, or purchased by us,
are still reserved to the said Indians, as aforesaid, forth-
with to remove themselves from such settlements.

It is easy for us to understand, that the fre-
quent and plausible mention of the Indians was
only a pretext to create an idea of the humanity
of government. The object and intention of the
proclamation was the western boundary, which is
here signified not to extend beyond the heads of
the rivers: and these, then, are the western Kmits
156

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

which Virginia had as a province under the
Crown of Britain.

And agreeable to the intention of this proc-
lamation, and the limits described thereby, Lord
Hillsborough, then Secretary of State in Eng-
land, addressed an official letter, of the thirty-first
of July, 1770, to Lord Bottetourt, at that time
Governor of Virginia, which letter was laid be-
fore the Council of Virginia by Mr. President
Nelson, and by him answered on the eighteenth
of October, in the same year, of which the follow-
ing are extracts:

On the evening of the day Your Lordship's letter
to the governor was delivered to me (as it contains mat-
ters of great variety and importance) it was read in
council, and, together with the several papers inclosed,
it hath been maturely considered, and I now trouble
Your Lordship with theirs as well as my own opinion
upon the subject of them.

We do not presume to say to whom our gracious
sovereign shall grant the vacant lands, and with
regard to the establishment of a new colony on the back
of Virginia, it is a subject of too great political im-
portance for me to presume to give an opinion upon ;
however, permit me, My Lord, to observe, that when that
part of the country shall become sufficiently populated
it may be a wise and prudent measure.

On the death of Lord Bottetourt, Lord Dun-
more was appointed to the government, and he,
either from ignorance of the subject or other

157

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

motives, made a grant of some lands on the Ohio
to certain of his friends and favorites, which
produced the following letter from Lord Dart-
mouth, who succeeded Lord Hillsborough as Sec-
retary of State:

I think fit to inclose Your Lordship a copy of Lord
Hillsborough's letter to Lord Bottetourt, of the thirty-
first of July, 1770, the receipt of which was acknowl-
edged by Mr. President Nelson, a few days before Lord
Bottetourt's death, and appears by his answer to it, to
have been laid before the council. That board, therefore,
could not be ignorant of what has passed here upon
Mr. Walpole's application, nor of the King's express
command, contained in Lord Hillsborough's letter, that
no lands should be granted beyond the limits of the
royal proclamation of 1763, until the King's further
pleasure was signified ; and I have only to observe, that
it must have been a very extraordinary neglect in them
not to have informed Your Lordship of that letter and
those orders.

On these documents I shall make no remarks.
They are their own evidence, and show what the
limits of Virginia were while a British province;
and as there was then no other authority by which
they could be fixed, and as the grant to the Lon-
don Company could not be a grant to any but
themselves, and of consequence ceased to be when
they ceased to exist, it remained a matter of
choice in the Crown, on its re-assumption of the
lands, to limit or divide them into separate
governments, as it judged best, and from which
158

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

there was not, and could not, in the order of gov-
ernment, be any appeal. Neither was Vii'ginia,
as a province, affected by it, because the moneys,
in any case, arising from the sale of lands, did
not go into her treasury; and whether to the
Crown or to the proprietors was to her indiffer-
ent. And it is likewise evident, from the secre-
tary's letter, and the president's answer, that it
was in contemplation to lay out a new colony on
the back of Virginia, between the Alleghany
Mountains and the Ohio.

Having thus gone through the several char-
ters, or grants, and their relation to each other,
and shown that Virginia cannot stand in succes-
sion to a private grant, which has been extinct
for upwards of one hundred and fifty years — and
that the western limits of Virginia, at the com-
mencement of the Revolution, were at the heads
of the rivers emptying themselves into the At-
lantic, none of which are beyond the Alleghany
Mountains; I now proceed to the second part,
namely,

The reasonableness of her claims.

Virginia, as a British province, stood in a dif-
ferent situation with the Crown of England to
any of the other provinces, because she had no
ascertained hmits, but such as arose from laying

159

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

off new provinces and the proclamation of 1763.
For the same name, Virginia, as I have before
mentioned, was the general name of all the coun-
try, and the dominion out of which the several
governments were laid off: and, in strict pro-
priety, conformable to the origin of names, the
province of Virginia was taken out of the domin-
ion of Virginia. For the term, dominion, could
not appertain to the province, which retained the
name of Virginia, but the Crown, and from
thence was applied to the whole country, and sig-
nified its being an appendage to the Crown of
England, as they say now, "our dominion of
Walesr

It is not possible to suppose there could exist
an idea that Virginia, as a British province, was
to be extended to the South Sea, at the distance
of three thousand miles. The dominion, as ap-
pertaining at that time to the Crown, might be
claimed to extend so far, but as a province the
thought was not conceivable, nor the practise pos-
sible.

And it is more than probable, that the de-
ception made use of to obtain the patent of 1609,
by representing the South Sea to be near where
the Alleghany Mountains are, was one cause of
its becoming extinct ; and it is worthy of remark-
160

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

ing, that no history (at least that I have met
with) mentions any dispute or litigation, between
the Crown and the Company, in consequence of
the extinction of the patent, and the re-assump-
tion of the lands ; and, therefore, the negative evi-
dence corroborating with the positive, makes it as
certain as such a case can possibly be, that either
the Company received a compensation for the
patent, or quitted it quietly, ashamed of the im-
position they had practised, and their subsequent
maladministration.

Men are not inclined to give up a claim where
there is any ground to contend upon, and the
silence in which the patent expired is a pre-
sumptive proof that its fate, from whatever
cause, was just.

There is one general policy which seems to
have prevailed with the English in laying off new
governments, which was, not to make them larger
than their own country, that they might the easier
hold them manageable: this was the case with
everyone except Canada, the extension of whose
limits was for the politic purpose of recognizing
new acquisitions of territory, not immediately
convenient for colonization.

But, in order to give this matter a chance
through all its cases, I will admit what no man

161

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

can suppose, which is, that there is an Enghsh
charter that fixes Virginia to extend from the
Atlantic to the South Sea, and contained within
a due west hne, set off two hundred miles below
Cape Comfort, and a northwest line, set off two
hundred miles above it. Her side, then, on the
Atlantic (according to an explanation given in
Mr. Bradford's paper of Sept. 29, 1779, by an
advocate for the Virginia claims) will be four
hundred miles; her side to the south three thou-
sand; her side to the west four thousand; and her
northwest line about five thousand ; and the quan-
tity of land contained within these dimensions will
be almost four thousand millions of acres, which
is more than ten times the quantity contained
within the present United States, and above an
hundred times greater than the Kingdom of Eng-
land.

To reason on a case like this, is such a waste
of time, and such an excess of folly, that it ought
not to be reasoned upon. It is impossible to sup-
pose that any patent to private persons could be
so intentionally absurd, and the claim grounded
thereon, is as wild as anything the imagination of
man ever conceived.

But if, as I before mentioned, there was a
charter which bore such an explanation, and Vir-
162

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

ginia stood in succession to it, what would that
be to us, any more than the will of Alexander, had
he taken it into his head to have bequeathed away
the world? Such a charter, or grant, must have
been obtained by imposition and a false repre-
sentation of the country, or granted in error, or
both ; and in any of, or all these cases, the United
States must reject the matter as something they
cannot know, for the merits wiU not bear an argu-
ment, and the pretension of right stands upon no
better ground.

Our case is an original one; and many mat-
ters attending it must be determined on their
own merits and reasonableness. The territory of
the rest of the states is, in general, within known
bounds of moderate extent, and the quota which
each state is to furnish toward the expense and
service of the war, must be ascertained upon some
rule of comparison. The number of inhabitants
of each state formed the first rule; and it was
naturally supposed that those numbers bore
nearly the same proportion to each other, which
the territory of each state did. Virginia on this
scale, would be about one fifth larger than Penn-
sylvania, which would be as much dominion as
any state could manage with happiness and con-
venience.

163

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

When I first began this subject, my intention
was to be extensive on the merits, and concise on
the matter of the right; instead of which, I have
been extensive on the matter of right, and concise
on the merits of reasonableness: and this altera-
tion in my design arose, consequentially, from
the nature of the subject; for as a reasonable
thing the claim can be supported by no argu-
ment, and therefore, needs none to refute it; but
as there is a strange propensity in mankind to
shelter themselves under the sanction of right,
however unreasonable that supposed right may
be, I found it most conducive to the interest of
the case, to show, that the right stands upon no
better grounds than the reason. And shall there-
fore proceed to make some observations on the
consequences of the claim.

The claim being unreasonable in itself, and
standing on no ground of right, but such
as, if true, must, from the quarter it is drawn,
be offensive, has a tendency to create disgust,
and sour the minds of the rest of the states.
Those lands are capable, under the management
of the United States, of repaying the charges of
the war, and some of them, as I shall hereafter
show, may, I presume, be made an immediate
advantage of.
164

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

I distinguish three different descriptions of
land in America at the commencement of the
Revolution. Proprietary or chartered lands, as
was the case in Pennsylvania; crown lands,
within the described limits of any of the Crown
governments; and crown residuary lands, that
were wdthout or beyond the limits of any prov-
ince; and those last were held in reserve whereon
to erect new governments, and lay out new
provinces ; as appears to have been the design by
Lord Hillsborough's letter, and the president's
answer, wherein he says, "with respect to the
establishment of a new colony on the back of
Virginia, it is a subject of too great political
importance for me to presume to give an opinion
upon ; however, permit me. My Lord, to observe,
that when that part of the country shall become
populated, it may be a wise and prudent
measure."

The expression is, a '"^ new colony on the hack
of Virginia; " and referred to lands between the
heads of the rivers and the Ohio. This is a proof
that those lands were not considered within, but
beyond the limits of Virginia, as a colony; and
the other expression in the letter is equally de-
scriptive, namely, " We do not presume to say,
to whom our Gracious Sovereign shall grant his

165

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

vacant lands." Certainly then, the same right,
which, at that time rested in the Crown, rests now
in the more supreme authority of the United
States; and therefore, addressing the president's
letter to the circumstances of the Revolution, it
will run thus:

" We do not presume to say to whom the
sovereign United States shall grant their vacant
lands, and with respect to the settlement of a
new colony on the hack of Virginia, it is a matter
of too much political importance for me to give
an opinion upon ; however, permit me to observe,
that when that part of the country shall become
populated it may be a wise and prudent meas-
ure."

It must occur to every person, on reflection,
that those lands are too distant to be within the
government of any of the present states; and, I
may presimie to suppose, that were a calculation
justly made, Virginia has lost more by the de-
crease of taxables, than she has gained by what
lands she has made sale of; therefore, she is not
only doing the rest of the states wrong in point
of equity, but herself and them an injury in
point of strength, service, and revenue.

It is only the United States, and not any
single state, that can lay off new states, and in-
166

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

corporate them In the Union by representation;
therefore, the situation which the settlers on
those lands will be in, under the assumed right
of Virginia, will be hazardous and distressing,
and they will feel themselves at last like the aliens
to the Commonwealth of Israel, their habitations
unsafe and their title precarious.

And when men reflect on that peace, har-
mony, quietude, and security, which are neces-
sary to prosperity, especially in making new set-
tlements, and think that when the war shall be
ended, their happiness and safety will depend
on a union with the states, and not a scattered
people, unconnected with, and pohtically un-
known to the rest, they will feel but little inclina-
tion to put themselves in a situation, which, how-
ever sohtary and recluse it may appear at pres-
ent, will then be uncertain and unsafe, and their
troubles will have to begin where those of the
United States shall end.

It is probable that some of the inhabitants of
Virginia may be inclined to suppose that the
writer of this, by taking up the subject in the
manner he has done, is arguing unfriendly
against their interest. To which he wishes to
reply:

That the most extraordinary part of the

167

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

whole is, that Virginia should countenance such
a claim. For it is worthy of observing, that,
from the beginning of the contest with Britain,
and long after, there was not a people in Amer-
ica who discovered, through all the variety and
multiphcity of public business, a greater fund
of true wisdom, fortitude, and disinterestedness,
than the then colony of Virginia. They were
loved — they were reverenced. Their investiga-
tion of the assumed rights of Britain had a
sagacity which was uncommon. Their reason-
ings were piercing, difficult to be equaled and
impossible to be refuted, and their public spirit
was exceeded by none. But since this unfortu-
nate land scheme has taken place, their powers
seem to be absorbed; a torpor has overshaded
them, and everyone asks. What is become of
Virginia?

It seldom happens that the romantic schemes
of extensive dominion are of any service to a
government, and never to a people. They assur-
edly end at last in loss, trouble, division and dis-
appointment. And was even the title of Vir-
ginia good, and the claim admissible, she would
derive more lasting and real benefit by partici-
pating in it, than by attempting the manage-
ment of an object so infinitely beyond her reach.
168

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

Her share with the rest, under the supremacy of
the United States, which is the only authority
adequate to the purpose, would be worth more
to her than what the whole would produce under
the management of herself alone. And that for
several reasons :

1st, Because her claim not being admissible
nor yet manageable, she cannot make a good title
to the purchasers, and consequently can get but
little for the lands.

2d, Because the distance the settlers wiU be
from her, will immediately put them out of all
government and protection, so far, at least as
relates to Virginia: and by this means she will
render her frontiers a refuge to desperadoes, and
a hiding place from justice; and the consequence
will be perpetual unsafety to her own peace, and
that of the neighboring states.

3d, Because her quota of expense for carry-
ing on the war, admitting her to engross such an
immensity of territory, would be greater than
she can either support or supply, and could not
be less, upon a reasonable rule of proportion,
than nine-tenths of the whole. And,

4th, Because she must sooner or later relin-
quish them; therefore to see her own interest

169

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

wisely at first, is preferable to the alternative of
finding it out by misfortune at last.

I have now gone through my examination of
the claim of Virginia, in every case which I pro-
posed; and for several reasons, wish the lot had
fallen to another person. But as this is a most
important matter, in which all are interested, and
the substantial good of Virginia not injured but
promoted, and as few men have leisure, and still
fewer have inclination, to go into intricate in-
vestigation, I have at last ventured on the sub-
ject.

The succession of the United States to the
vacant western territory is a right they origin-
ally set out upon; and in the pamphlet " Com-
mon Sense," I frequently mentioned those lands
as a national fund for the benefit of all; there-
fore, resuming the subject where I then left off",
I shall conclude with concisely reducing to sys-
tem what I then only hinted.

In my last piece, the " Crisis Extraordinary,"
I estimated the annual amount of the charge of
war and the support of the several governments
at two million pounds sterling, and the peace
establishment at three quarters of a million, and,
by a comparison of the taxes of this country
with those of England, proved that the whole
170

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

yearly expense to us, to defend the country, is
but a third of what Britain would have drawn
from us by taxes, had she succeeded in her at-
tempt to conquer; and our peace establishment
only an eighth part ; and likewise showed, that it
was within the abihty of the states to carry on
the whole of the war by taxation, without having
recourse to any other modes or funds. To have
a clear idea of taxation is necessary to every
country, and the more funds we can discover and
organize, the less will be the hope of the enemy,
and the readier their disposition to peace, which
it is now their interest more than ours to promote.

I have already remarked that only the United
States, and not any particular state, can lay off
new states and incorporate them into the Union
by representation; keeping, therefore, this idea
in view, I ask, might not a substantial fund be
quickly created by laying off a new state, so as
to contain between twenty and thirty millions of
acres, and opening a land office in all countries
in Europe for hard money, and in this country
for supplies in kind, at a certain price?

The tract of land that seems best adapted
to answer this purpose is contained between the
Alleghany IVIountains and the river Ohio, as far
north as the Pennsylvania line, thence extend-

VII 1-18 171

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

ing down the said river to the falls thereof,
thence due south into the latitude of the North-
Carolina line, and thence east to the Alleghany
Mountains aforesaid. I the more readily men-
tion this tract, because it is fighting the enemy
with their own weapons, as it includes the same
ground on which a new colony would have been
erected, for the emolument of the Crown of Eng-
land, as appears by the letters of Lords Hillsbor-
ough and Dartmouth, had not the Revolution
prevented its being carried into effect.

It is probable that there may be some spots
of private property within this tract, but to in-
corporate them into some government will render
them more profitable to the owners, and the con-
dition of the scattered settlers more eligible and
happy than at present.

If twenty millions of acres of this new state
be patented and sold at twenty pounds sterling
per hundred acres, they will produce four million
pounds sterling, which, if applied to Continental
expenses only, will support the war for three
years, should Britain be so unwise as to prosecute
it against her own direct interest and against the
interest and policy of all Europe. The several
states will then have to raise taxes for their in-
ternal government only, and the Continental
172

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

taxes, as soon as the fund begins to operate, will
lessen, and if sufficiently productive, will cease.

Lands are the real riches of the habitable
world, and the natural funds of America. The
funds of other countries are, in general, artifi-
cially constructed; the creatures of necessity and
contrivance dependent upon credit, and always
exposed to hazard and uncertainty. But lands
can neither be annihilated nor lose their value;
on the contrary, they universally rise with
population, and rapidly so, when under the se-
curity of effectual government. But this it is
impossible for Virginia to give, and therefore,
that which is capable of defraying the expenses
of the empire, will, under the management of
any single state, produce only a fugitive support
to wandering individuals.

I shall now inquire into the effects which the
laying out of a new state, under the authority of
the United States, will have upon Virginia. It
is the very circumstance she ought to, and must,
wish for, when she examines the matter in all
its bearings and consequences.

The present settlers beyond her reach, and
her supposed authority over them remaining in
herself, they will appear to her as revolters, and
she to them as oppressors; and this will produce

173

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

such a spirit of mutual dislike, that in a little time
a total disagreement will take place, to the disad-
vantage of both. But under the authority of the
United States the matter is manageable, and
Virginia will be eased of a disagreeable conse-
quence.

Besides this, a sale of the lands, continentally,
for the purpose of supporting the expense of the
war, will save her a greater share of taxes, than
the small sale which she could make herself, and
the small price she could get for them would
produce.

She would likewise have two advantages
which no other state in the Union enjoys; first, a
frontier state for her defense against the incur-
sions of the Indians; and the second is, that the
laying out and peopling a new state on the back
of an old one, situated as she is, is doubling the
quantity of its trade.

The new state which is here proposed to be
laid out, may send its exports down the Missis-
sippi, but its imports must come through Chesa-
peake Bay, and consequently Virginia will be-
come the market for the new state; because,
though there is a navigation from it, there is none
into it, on account of the rapidity of the Missis-
sippi.

1741

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

There are certain circumstances that will pro-
duce certain events whether men think of them
or not. The events do not depend upon think-
ing, but are the natural consequence of acting;
and according to the system w^hich Virginia has
gone upon, the issue will be, that she will get in-
volved with the back settlers in a contention
about rights J till they dispute with their own
claims; and, soured by the contention, will go to
any other state for their commerce ; both of which
may be prevented, a perfect harmony established,
the strength of the states increased, and the ex-
penses of the war defrayed, by settling the mat-
ter now on the plan of a general right ; and every
day it is delayed, the difficulty will be increased
and the advantages lessened.

But if it should happen, as it possibly may,
that the war should end before the money, which
the new state may produce, be expended, the
remainder of the lands therein may be set apart
to reimburse those whose houses have been burned
by the enemy, as this is a species of suffering
which it was impossible to prevent, because
houses are not movable property; and it ought
not to be that because we cannot do everything,
that we ought not to do what we can.

Having said this much on the subject, I think

175

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

it necessary to remark, that the prospect of a new
fund, so far from abating our endeavors in
making every immediate provision for the army,
ought to quicken us therein ; for should the states
see it expedient to go upon the measure, it will
be at least a year before it can be productive. I
the more freely mention this, because there is a
dangerous species of popularity, which, I fear,
some men are seeking from their constituents by
giving them grounds to believe, that if they are
elected they will lighten the taxes; a measure
which, in the present state of things, cannot be
done without exposing the country to the rav-
ages of the enemy by disabling the army from
defending it.

Where knowledge is a duty, ignorance is a
crime ; and if any man whose duty it was to know
better, has encouraged such an expectation, he
has either deceived himself or them: besides, no
country can be defended without expense, and
let any man compare his portion of temporary
inconveniences arising from taxation with the
real distresses of the army for want of supplies,
and the difference is not only sufficient to strike
him dumb, but make him thankful that worse
consequences have not followed.

In advancing this doctrine, I speak with an
176

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

honest freedom to the country; for as it is their
good to be defended, so it is their interest to pro-
vide that defense, at least tiU other funds can be
organized.

As the laying out new states will some time
or other be the business of the country, and as it
is yet a new business to us, and as the influence of
the war has scarcely afforded leisure for reflect-
ing on distant circumstances, I shall thi'ow to-
gether a few hints for facilitating that measure
whenever it may be proper for adopting it.

The United States now standing on the line
of sovereignty, the vacant territory is their prop-
erty collectively, but the persons by whom it may
hereafter be peopled will also have an equal right
with om'selves ; and therefore, as new states shall
be laid off and incorporated with the present,
they will become partakers of the remaining ter-
ritory with us who are already in possession.
And this consideration ought to heighten the
value of lands to new emigrants: because, in
making the purchases, they not only gain an im-
mediate property, but become initiated into the
right and heirship of the states to a property in
reserve, which is an additional advantage to what
any purchasers under the late Government of
England enjoyed.

177

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

The setting off the boundary of any new
state will naturally be the first step, and as it
must be supposed not to be peopled at the time
it is laid off, a constitution must be formed by
the United States, as the rule of government in
any new state, for a certain term of years (per-
haps ten) or until the state becomes peopled to
a certain number of inhabitants ; after which, the
whole and sole right of modeling their govern-
ment to rest with themselves.

A question may arise, whether a new state
should immediately possess an equal right with
the present ones in all cases which may come be-
fore Congress.

This, experience will best determine; but at
a first view of the matter it appears thus: that it
ought to be immediately incorporated into the
Union on the ground of a family right, such a
state standing in the line of a younger child of
the same stock; but as new emigrants will have
something to learn when they first come to
America, and a new state requiring aid rather
than capable of giving it, it might be most con-
venient to admit its immediate representation
into Congress, there to sit, hear and debate on all
questions and matters, but not to vote on any till
after the expiration of seven years.
178

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

I shall in this place take the opportunity of
renewing a hint which I formerly threw out in
the pamphlet " Common Sense," and which the
several states will, sooner or later, see the con-
venience if not the necessity of adopting; which
is, that of electing a Continental convention, for
the purpose of forming a Continental constitu-
tion, defining and describing the powers and
authority of Congress.

Those of entering into treaties, and making
peace, they naturally possess, in behalf of the
states, for their separate as well as their united
good, but the internal control and dictatorial
powers of Congress are not sufficiently defined,
and appear to be too much in some cases and too
little in others; and therefore, to have them
marked out legally will give additional energy
to the whole, and a new confidence to the several
parts.

179

LETTER TO THE ABBE RAYNAL

1782*

INTRODUCTION

A LONDON translation of an original work
-^ ^ in French, by the Abbe Raynal, which
treats of the Revolution of North America, hav-
ing been re-printed in Philadelphia and other
parts of the continent, and as the distance at
which the Abbe is placed from the American
theater of war and politics, has occasioned him to
mistake several facts, or misconceive the causes or
principles by which they were produced, the fol-
lowing tract, therefore, is published with a view
to rectify them, and prevent even accidental er-
rors from intermixing with history, under the
sanction of time and silence.

The editor of the London edition has entitled
it, "The Revolution of America, by the Abbe
Raynal/'' and the American printers have fol-
lowed the example. But I have understood,
and I believe my information just, that the piece,
which is more properly reflections on the Revolu-
tion, was unfairly purloined from the printer

* "Letter to the Abb6 Raynal, on the Affairs of North Amer-
ica: in which the Mistakes in the Abba's account of the Revolu-
tion of America are Corrected and Cleared up." — Ed.

180

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

whom the Abbe employed, or from the manu-
script copy, and is only part of a larger work
then in the press, or preparing for it. The per-
son who procured it, appears to have been an
Enghsliman, and though, in an advertisement
prefixed to the London edition, he has endeav-
ored to gloss over the embezzlement with pro-
fessions of patriotism, and to soften it with high
encomiums on the author, yet the action in any
view in which it can be placed, is illiberal and
unpardonable.

In the course of his travels, (says he), the trans-
lator happily succeeded in obtaining a copy of this
exquisite Httle piece which has not made its appearance
from any press. He pubHshes a French edition, in favor
of those who feel its eloquent reasoning more forcibly
in its native language, at the same time with the
following translation of it: in which he has been de-
sirous, perhaps in vain, that all the warmth, the
grace, the strength, the dignity of the original, should
not be lost. And he flatters himself, that the indul-
gence of the illustrious historian will not be wanting
to a man, who, of his own motion, has taken the liberty
to give this composition to the public, only from a
strong persuasion, that its momentous argument will
be useful in a critical conjuncture, to that country
which he loves with an ardor that can be exceeded only
by the nobler flame, which burns in the bosom of the
philanthropic author, for the freedom and happiness
of all the countries upon earth.

This plausibility of setting off a dishonor-

181

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

able action, may pass for patriotism and sound
principles with those who do not enter into its
demerits, and whose interest is not injured nor
their happiness affected thereby. But it is more
than probable, notwithstanding the declarations
it contains, that the copy was obtained for the
sake of profiting by the sale of a new and popu-
lar work, and that the professions are but a garb
to the fraud.

It may with propriety be marked, that in all
countries where literature is protected, and it
never can flourish where it is not, the works of an
author are his legal property ; and to treat letters
in any other light than this, is to banish them
from the country, or strangle them in the birth.
— The embezzlement from the Abbe Raynal, was,
it is true, conmiitted by one country upon an-
other, and therefore shows no defect in the laws
of either. But it is nevertheless a breach of civil
manners and literary justice: neither can it be
any apology, that because the countries are at
war, literature shall be entitled to depredation.*

* The state of literature in America must one day become a
subject of legislative consideration. Hitherto it hath been a dis-
interested volunteer in the service of the Revolution, and no man
thought of profits: but when peace shall give time and opportimity
for study, the country will deprive itself of the honor and service
of letters and the improvement of science, unless sufficient laws
are made to prevent depredations on literary property. It is well

182

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

But the forestalling the Abbe's publication by
liOndon editions, both in French and English,
and thereby not only defrauding him and throw-
ing an expensive publication on his hands by an-
ticipating the sale, are only the smaller injuries
which such conduct may occasion. A man's
opinions, whether written or in thought, are his
own, until he pleases to publish them himself;
and it is adding cruelty to injustice, to make
him the author of what future reflection, or bet-
ter information, might occasion him to suppress
or amend. There are declarations and senti-
ments in the Abbe's piece which, for my own
part, I did not expect to find, and such as him-
self, on a re\dsal, might have seen occasion to
change; but the anticipated piracy efl'ectually
prevented his having the opportunity, and pre-
cipitated him into difficulties, which, had it not
been for such ungenerous fraud, might not have
happened.

This mode of making an author appear be-
fore his time, will appear still more ungenerous,
when we consider how very few men there are in

worth remarking, that Russia, who but a few years ago was
scarcely known in Europe, owes a large share of her present
greatness to the close attention she has paid, and the wise encour-
agement she has given, to every branch of science and learning:
and we have almost the same instance in France, in the reign of
Louis XIV.

188

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

any country, who can at once, and without the
aid of reflection and revisal, combine warm pas-
sions with a cool temper, and the full expansion
of the imagination with the natural and neces-
sary gravity of judgment, so as to be rightly
balanced within themselves, and to make a
reader feel, fancy, and understand justly at the
same time. To call three powers of the mind
into action at once, in a manner that neither shall
interrupt, and that each shall aid and invigorate
the other, is a talent very rarely possessed.

It often happens that the weight of an argu-
ment is lost by the wit of setting it oiF; or the
judgment disordered by an intemperate irrita-
tion of the passions: yet a certain degree of ani-
mation must be felt by the writer, and raised in
the reader, in order to interest the attention ; and
a sufficient scope given to the imagination, to
enable it to create in the mind a sight of the per-
sons, characters and circumstances of the sub-
ject: for without these, the judgment will feel
little or no excitement to office, and its determin-
ations will be cold, sluggish, and imperfect.

But if either or both of the two former are
raised too high, or heated too much, the judgment
will be jostled from its seat, and the whole mat-
ter, however important in itself, will diminish
184

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

into a pantomime of the mind, in which we create
images that promote no other purpose than
amusement.

The Abbe's writings bear evident marks of
that extension and rapidness of thinking and
quickness of sensation, which of all others require
revisal, and the more particularly so, when ap-
plied to the Hving characters of nations or indi-
viduals in a state of war. The least misinforma-
tion or misconception leads to some wrong con-
clusion, and an error believed, becomes the pro-
genitor of others. And, as the Abbe has suffered
some inconveniences in France, by mistaking cer-
tain circumstances of the war, and the characters
of the parties therein, it becomes some apology
for him that those errors were precipitated into
the world by the avarice of an ungenerous
enemy.

185

LETTER TO THE ABBE RAYNAL

'T^O an author of such distinguished reputa-
-^ tion as the Abbe Raynal, it might very well
become me to apologize for the present under-
taking; but, as to he right is the first wish of
philosophy, and the first principle of history, he
will, I presume, accept from me a declaration of
my motives, which are those of doing justice, in
preference to any complimental apology I might
otherwise make. The Abbe, in the course of his
work, has, in some instances, extolled without a
reason, and wounded without a cause. He has
given fame where it was not deserved, and with-
held it where it was justly due; and appears to
be so frequently in and out of temper with his
subjects and parties, that few or none of them
are decisively and uniformly marked.

It is yet too soon to write the history of the
Revolution, and whoever attempts it precipi-
tately, will unavoidably mistake characters and
circumstances, and involve himself in error and
difficulty. Things, like men, are seldom under-
stood rightly at first sight. But the Abbe is
wrong even in the foundation of his work; that
is, he has misconceived and mis-stated the causes
186

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

which produced the rupture between England
and her then colonies, and which led on, step by
step, unstudied and uncontrived on the part of
America, to a revolution, which has engaged the
attention, and aifected the interest of Europe.
To prove this, I shall bring forward a pas-
sage, which, though placed towards the latter
part of the Abbe's work, is more intimately con-
nected with the beginning; and in which, speak-
ing of the original cause of the dispute, he de-
clares himself in the following manner:

None, (says he), of those energetic causes, which
have produced so many revolutions upon the globe, ex-
isted in North America. Neither religion nor laws had
there been outraged. The blood of martyrs or patriots
had not there streamed from scaffolds. Morals had not
there been insulted. Manners, customs, habits, no
object dear to nations, had there been the sport of
ridicule. Arbitrary power had not there torn any in-
habitant from the arms of his family and friends, to
drag him to a dreary dungeon. Public order had not
been there inverted. The principles of administration
had not been changed there ; and the maxims of govern-
ment had there always remained the same. The whole
question was reduced to the knowing whether the
mother country had, or had not, a right to lay, di-
rectly or indirectly, a slight tax upon the colonies.

On this extraordinary passage, it may not be

improper, in general terms, to remark, that none

can feel like those who suffer ; and that for a man

VITT-I4 187

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

to be a competent judge of the provocatives, or
as the Abbe styles them, the energetic causes of
the Revolution, he must have resided at the time
in America.

The Abbe, in saying that the several particu-
lars he has enumerated, did not exist in America,
and neglecting to point out the particular period,
in which he means they did not exist, reduces
thereby his declaration to a nullity, by taking
away all meaning from the passage.

They did not exist in 1763, and they all
existed before 1776 ; consequently as there was a
time when they did notj and another, when they
did exist, the time when constitutes the essence of
the fact, and not to give it is to withhold the
only evidence which proves the declaration right
or wrong, and on which it must stand or fall.
But the declaration as it now appears, unaccom-
panied by time, has an effect in holding out to
the world, that there was no real cause for the
Revolution, because it denies the existence of all
those causes, which are supposed to be justifiable,
and which the Abbe styles energetic.

I confess myself exceedingly at a loss to find

out the time to which the Abbe alludes ; because,

in another part of the work, in speaking of the

Stamp Act, which was passed in 1764, he styles it

188

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

" an usurpation of the Americans' most precious
and sacred rights/' Consequently he here ad-
mits the most energetic of all causes, that is, an
usurpation of their most precious and sacred
rights, to have existed in America twelve years
before the Declaration of Independence, and ten
years before the breaking out of hostilities. The
time, therefore, in which the paragraph is true,
must be antecedent to the Stamp Act, but as at
that time there was no revolution, nor any idea
of one, it consequently applies without a mean-
ing ; and as it cannot, on the Abbe's own principle,
be applied to any time after the Stamp Act, it is
therefore a wandering, solitary paragraph, con-
nected with nothing and at variance with every-
thing.

The Stamp Act, it is true, was repealed in two
years after it was passed, but it was immediately
followed by one of infinitely more mischievous
magnitude; I mean the Declaratory Act, which
asserted the right, as it was styled, of the British
Parliament, "to hind America in all cases what-
soever/'

If then the Stamp Act was an usurpation of
the Americans' most precious and sacred rights,
the Declaratory Act left them no rights at all;
and contained the full grown seeds of the most

189

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

despotic government ever exercised in the world.
It placed America not only in the lowest, but in
the basest state of vassalage; because it de-
manded an unconditional submission in every-
thing, or as the act expressed it, in all cases what-
soever: and what renders this act the more offen-
sive, is, that it appears to have been passed as an
act of mercy ; truly then may it be said, that the
tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.

All the original charters from the Crown of
England, under the faith of which the adventur-
ers from the Old World settled in the New, were
by this act displaced from their foundations; be-
cause, contrary to the nature of them, which was
that of a compact, they were now made subject
to repeal or alteration at the mere will of one
party only. The whole condition of America
was thus put into the hands of the Parliament or
Ministry, without leaving to her the least right
in any case whatsoever.

There is no despotism to which this iniqui-
tous law did not extend; and though it might
have been convenient in the execution of it, to
have consulted manners and habits, the principle
of the act made all tyranny legal. It stopped
nowhere. It went to everything. It took in
with it the whole life of a man, or if I may so
190

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

express it, an eternity of circumstances. It is
the nature of law to require obedience, but this
demanded servitude; and the condition of an
American, under the operation of it, was not
that of a subject, but a vassal. Tyranny has
often been established witJiout law and some-
times against it, but the history of mankind does
not produce another instance, in which it has
been established by law. It is an audacious out-
rage upon civil government, and cannot be too
much exposed, in order to be sufficiently de-
tested.

Neither could it be said after this, that the
legislature of that country any longer made laws
for this, but that it gave out commands; for
wherein differed an act of Parliament con-
structed on this principle, and operating in this
manner, over an unrepresented people, from the
orders of a military establishment?

The Parliament of England, with respect to
America, was not septennial but perpetual. It
appeared to the latter a body always in being.
Its election or expiration were to her the same
as if its members succeeded by inheritance, or
went out by death, or lived forever, or were
appointed to it as a matter of office. Therefore,
for the people of England to have any just con-

191

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

ception of the mind of America, respecting this
extraordinary act, they must suppose all election
and expiration in that country to cease forever,
and the present Parliament, its heirs, etc. to be
perpetual; in this case, I ask, what would the
most clamorous of them think, were an act to be
passed, declaring the right of such a Parliament
to bind them in all cases whatsoever? For this
word whatsoever would go as effectually to their
Magna Charta, Bill of Rights, trial by juries, etc.
as it went to the charters and forms of govern-
ment in America.

I am persuaded, that the gentleman to whom
I address these remarks, will not, after the pass-
ing of this act, say, " that the principles of ad-
ministration had not been changed in America,
and that the maxims of government had there
been always the same" For here is, in principle,
a total overthrow of the whole ; and not a subver-
sion only, but an anniliilation of the foundation
of liberty and absolute domination established
in its stead.

The Abbe likewise states the case exceedingly
wrong and injuriously, when he says, that " the
whole question was reduced to the knowing
whether the mother country had, or had not, a
right to lay, directly or indirectly, a slight tax
192

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

upon the colonies." This was not the whole of
the question ; neither was the quantity of the tax
the object either to the Ministry or to the Ameri-
cans. It was the principle, of which the tax
made but a part, and the quantity still less, that
formed the ground on which America resisted.

The tax on tea, which is the tax here alluded
to, was neither more nor less than an experiment
to establish the practise of a declaratory law
upon; modeled into the more fashionable phrase
of the universal supremacy of Parliament. For
until this time the declaratory law had lain dor-
mant, and the framers of it had contented them-
selves with barely declaring an opinion.

Therefore the whole question with America,
in the opening of the dispute, was, shall we be
bound in all cases whatsoever by the British Par-
liament, or shall we not? For submission to the
tea or tax act implied an acknowledgment of
the Declaratory Act, or, in other words, of the
universal supremacy of Parliament, which as
they never intended to do, it was necessary they
should oppose it, in its first stage of execution.

It is probable the Abbe has been led into this
mistake by perusing detached pieces in some of
the American newspapers; for, in a case where
all were interested, everyone had a right to give

193

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

his opinion; and there were many, who, with the
best intentions, did not choose the best, nor in-
deed the true ground, to defend their cause upon.
They felt themselves right by a general impulse,
without being able to separate, analyze, and ar-
range the parts.

I am somewhat unwilUng to examine too
minutely into the whole of this extraordinary
passage of the Abbe, lest I should appear to
treat it with severity ; otherwise I could show that
not a single declaration is justly founded: for in-
stance, the reviving an obsolete act of the reign
of Henry VIII and fitting it to the Americans,
by authority of which they were to be seized and
brought from America to England, and there
imprisoned and tried for any supposed offenses,
was, in the worst sense of the words, to tear them,
by the arbitrary power of Parliament^ from the
arms of their families and friends^ and drag
them not only to dreary but distant dungeons.
Yet this act was contrived some years before the
breaking out of hostilities. And again, though
the blood of martyrs and patriots had not
streamed on the scaiFolds, it streamed in the
streets, in the massacre of the inhabitants of Bos-
ton, by the British soldiery in the year 1770.

Had the Abbe said that the causes which pro-
194

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

duced the Revolution in America were originally
different from those which produced revolu-
tions in other parts of the globe, he had been
right. Here the value and quality of liberty, the
nature of government, and the dignity of man,
were known and understood, and the attachment
of the Americans to these principles produced the
Revolution, as a natural and almost unavoidable
consequence. They had no particular family to
set up or pull down. Nothing of personality was
incorporated with their cause. They started
even-handed with each other, and went no faster
into the several stages of it, than they were driven
by the unrelenting and imperious conduct of
Britain. Nay, in the last act, the Declaration of
Independence, they had nearly been too late ; for
had it not been declared at the exact time it was,
I see no period in their affairs since, in which
it could have been declared with the same effect,
and probably not at all.

But the object being formed before the re-
verse of fortune took place, that is, before the
operations of the gloomy campaign of 1776,
their honor, their interest, their everything,
called loudly on them to maintain it; and that
glow of thought and energy of heart, which
even a distant prospect of independence inspires,

195

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

gave confidence to their hopes, and resolution to
their conduct, which a state of dependence could
never have reached. They looked forward to
happier days and scenes of rest, and qualified
the hardships of the campaign by contemplating
the establishment of their new-born system.

If, on the other hand, we take a review of
what part Britain has acted, we shall find every-
thing which ought to make a nation blush — the
most vulgar abuse, accompanied by that species
of haughtiness which distinguishes the hero of a
mob from the character of a gentleman. It was
equally as much from her manners as from her
injustice that she lost the colonies. By the lat-
ter she provoked their principles, by the former
she wore out their temper; and it ought to be
held out as an example to the world, to show
how necessary it is to conduct the business of
government with civility. In short, other revo-
lutions may have originated in caprice, or gen-
erated in ambition ; but here, the most unoffend-
ing humility was tortured into rage, and the
infancy of existence made to weep.

A union so extensive, continued and deter-
mined, suffering with patience and never in de-
spair, could not have been produced by common
causes. It must be something capable of reach-
196

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

ing the whole soul of man and arming it with
perpetual energy. It is in vain to look for
precedents among the revolutions of former
ages, to find out, by comparison, the causes of
this.

The spring, the progress, the object, the con-
sequences, nay, the men, their habits of thinking,
and all the circumstances of the country, are
different. Those of other nations are, in general,
little more than the history of their quarrels.
They are marked by no important character in
the annals of events; mixed in the mass of gen-
eral matters, they occupy but a common page;
and while the chief of the successful partisans
stepped into power, the plundered multitude sat
down and sorrowed. Few, very few of them are
accompanied with reformation, either in govern-
ment or manners; many of them with the most
consummate profligacy. Triumph on the one
side and misery on the other were the only events.
Pains, punishments, torture, and death were
made the business of mankind, until compassion,
the fairest associate of the heart, was driven from
its place, and the eye, accustomed to continual
cruelty, could behold it without offense.

But as the principles of the present Revolu-
tion differed from those which preceded it, so

197

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

likewise did the conduct of America both in gov-
ernment and war. Neither the foul finger of
disgrace nor the bloody hand of vengeance has
hitherto put a blot upon her fame. Her victories
have received lustre from a greatness of lenity;
and her laws have been permitted to slumber,
where they might justly be awakened to punish.
War, so much the trade of the world, has here
been only the business of necessity; and when
the necessity shall cease, her very enemies must
confess, that as she drew the sword in her just
defense, she used it without cruelty, and sheathed
it without revenge.

As it is not my design to extend these remarks
to a history, I shall now take my leave of this
passage of the Abbe, with an observation, which,
until something unfolds itself to convince me
otherwise, I cannot avoid believing to be true; —
which is, that it was the fixed determination of
the British Cabinet to quarrel with America at
all events.

They (the members who composed the Cab-
inet) had no doubt of success, if they could once
bring it to the issue of a battle, and they expected
from a conquest, what they could neither propose
with decency, nor hope for by negotiation. The
charters and constitutions of the colonies were
198

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

become to them matters of offense, and their
rapid progress in property and population were
disgustingly beheld as the growing and natural
means of independence. They saw no way to
retain them long but by reducing them in time.
A conquest would at once have made them both
lords and landlords ; and put them in the posses-
sion both of the revenue and the rental. The
whole trouble of government would have ceased
in a victory, and a final end put to remonstrance
and debate.

The experience of the Stamp Act had taught
them how to quarrel with the advantages of
cover and convenience, and they had nothing to
do but to renew the scene, and put contention
into motion. They hoped for a rebelhon, and
they made one. They expected a declaration of
independence, and they were not disappointed.
But after this, they looked for victory, and they
obtained a defeat.

If this be taken as the generating cause of
the contest, then is every part of the conduct
of the British Ministry consistent from the com-
mencement of the dispute, until the signing the
Treaty of Paris, after which, conquest becoming
doubtful, they retreated to negotiation, and were
again defeated.

199

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

Though the Abbe possesses and displays
great powers of genius, and is a master of style
and language, he seems not to pay equal atten-
tion to the office of an historian. His facts are
coldly and carelessly stated. They neither in-
form the reader nor interest him. Many of them
are erroneous, and most of them are defective and
obscure. It is undoubtedly both an ornament
and a useful addition to history, to accompany
it with maxims and reflections. They afford hke-
wise an agreeable change to the style, and a more
diversified manner of expression; but it is abso-
lutely necessary that the root from whence they
spring, or the foundation on which they are
raised, should be well attended to, which in this
work is not. The Abbe hastens through his nar-
rations as if he was glad to get from them, that
he may enter the more copious field of eloquence
and imagination.

The actions of Trenton and Princeton, in
New Jersey, in December 1776, and January
f oUovnng, on which the fate of America stood for
a while tremblmg on the point of suspense, and
from which the most important consequences fol-
lowed, are comprised within a single paragraph,
faintly conceived, and barren of character, cir-
cumstance and description.
200

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

On the twenty-fifth of December, (says the Abbe),
they (the Americans) crossed the Delaware, and fell ac-
cidentally upon Trenton, which was occupied by fifteen
hundred of the twelve thousand Hessians, sold in so
base a manner by their avaricious master, to the King
of Great Britain. This corps was massacred, taken,
or dispersed. Eight days after, three English regi-
ments were, in like manner, driven from Princeton, but
after having better supported their reputation than
the foreign troops in their pay.

This is all the account which is given of these
interesting events. The Abbe has preceded them
by two or three pages on the military operations
of both armies, from the time of General Howe's
arriving before New York from Halifax, and
the vast reinforcements of British and foreign
troops with Lord Howe from England. But in
these, there is so much mistake, and so many
omissions, that, to set them right, must be the
business of a history and not of a letter.

The action of Long Island is but barely
hinted at, and the operations at the White Plains
wholly omitted; as are likewise the attack and
loss of Fort Washington, with a garrison of about
two thousand five hundred men, and the precipi-
tate evacuation of Fort Lee, in consequence
thereof: which losses were in a great measure
the cause of the retreat through the Jerseys to
the Delaware, a distance of about ninety miles.

201

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

Neither is the manner of the retreat described;
which, from the season of the year, the nature of
the country, the nearness of the two armies
(sometimes within sight and shot of each other,
for such a length of way) the rear of the one
employed in pulling down bridges, and the van
of the other in building them up, must necessarily
be accompanied with many interesting circum-
stances.

It was a period of distresses. A crisis rather
of danger than of hope. There is no description
can do it justice; and even the actors in it, look-
ing back upon the scene, are surprised how they
got through; and at a loss to account for those
powers of the mind, and springs of animation,
by which they withstood the force of accumulated
misfortune.

It was expected, that the time for which the
army was enlisted, would carry the campaign so
far into the winter, that the severity of the sea-
son, and the consequent condition of the roads,
would prevent any material operation of the
enemy, until the new army could be raised for
the next year. And I mention it, as a matter
worthy of attention, by all future historians, that
the movements of the American Army, until the
attack of the Hessian post at Trenton, the
202

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

twenty-sixth of December, are to be considered
as operating to effect no other principal purpose
than delay, and to wear away the campaign
under all the disadvantages of an unequal force,
with as little misfortune as possible.

But the loss of the garrison at Fort Washing-
ton on the sixteenth of November, and the ex-
piration of the time of a considerable part of the
army, so early as the thirtieth of the same month,
and which was to be followed by almost daily
expirations afterwards, made retreat the only
final expedient. To these circumstances may be
added the forlorn and destitute condition of the
few that remained ; for the garrison of Fort Lee,
which composed almost the whole of the retreat,
had been obliged to abandon it so instantaneous-
ly that every article of stores and baggage was
left behind, and in this destitute condition, with-
out tent or blanket, and without any other uten-
sils to dress their provision than what they
procured by the way, they performed a march of
about ninety miles, and had the address and
management to prolong it to the space of
nineteen days.

By this unexpected or rather unthought-of
turn of affairs, the country was in an instant
surprised into confusion, and found an enemy
viii-is 203

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

within its bowels, without an army to oppose him.
There were no succors to be had, but from the
free-will offering of the inhabitants. All was
choice, and every man reasoned for himself.

It was in this situation of affairs, equally cal-
culated to confound or to inspire, that the gentle-
man, the merchant, the farmer, the tradesman
and the laborer mutually turned from all the
conveniences of home, to perform the duties of
private soldiers, and undergo the severities of
a winter campaign. The delay so judiciously
contrived on the retreat, afforded time for the
volunteer reinforcements to join General Wash-
ington on the Delaware.

The Abbe is likewise wrong in saying, that
the American Army fell accidentally on Trenton.
It was the very object for which General Wash-
ington crossed the Delaware in the dead of the
night and in the midst of snow, storms, and ice;
and which he immediately re-crossed with his
prisoners, as soon as he had accomplished his
purpose. Neither was the intended enterprise a
secret to the enemy, information having been sent
of it by letter, from a British officer at Princeton,
to Colonel Rolle [Rahl, or Rail], who com-
manded the Hessians at Trenton, which letter
was afterwards found by the Americans. Never-
204.

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

theless the post was completely surprised. A
small circmnstance, which had the appearance of
mistake on the part of the Americans, led to a
more capital and real mistake on the part of
Rolle.

The case was this. A detachment of twenty
or thirty Americans had been sent across the
river, from a post a few miles above, by an officer
unacquainted with the intended attack; these
were met by a body of Hessians on the night to
which the information pointed, which was Christ-
mas night, and repulsed. Nothing further ap-
pearing, and the Hessians mistaking this for the
advanced party, supposed the enterprise discon-
certed, which at that time was not begun, and
under this idea returned to their quarters; so
that, what might have raised an alarm, and
brought the Americans into an ambuscade, served
to take off the force of an information, and pro-
mote the success of the enterprise. Soon after
daylight, General Washington entered the town,
and after a little opposition, made himself master
of it, with upwards of nine hundred prisoners.

This combination of equivocal circumstances,
falling within what the Abbe styles, ^Hhe wide
empire of chance" would have afforded a fine
field for thought, and I wish, for the sake of

205

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

that elegance of reflection he is so capable of
using, that he had known it.

But the action at Princeton was accompanied
by a still greater embarrassment of matters, and
followed by more extraordinary consequences.
The Americans, by a happy stroke of general-
ship, in this instance, not only deranged and de-
feated all the plans of the British, in the intended
moment of execution, but drew from their posts
the enemy they were not able to drive, and
obliged them to close the campaign. As the
circumstance is a curiosity in war, and not well
understood in Europe, I shall, as concisely as I
can, relate the principal parts; they may serve
to prevent future historians from error, and re-
cover from f orgetfulness a scene of magnificent
fortitude.

Immediately after the surprise of the Hes-
sians at Trenton, General Washington re-crossed
the Delaware, which at this place is about three
quarters of a mile over, and reassumed his former
post on the Pennsylvania side. Trenton re-
mained unoccupied, and the enemy were posted
at Princeton, twelve miles distant, on the road
toward New York. The weather was now
growing very severe, and as there were very few
houses near the shore where General Washington
206

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

had taken his station, the greatest part of his
army remained out in the woods and fields.
These, with some other circumstances, induced
the re-crossing the Delaware and taking posses-
sion of Trenton. It was undoubtedly a bold ad-
venture, and carried with it the appearance of
defiance, especially when we consider the panic-
struck condition of the enemy on the loss of the
Hessian post. But in order to give a just idea
of the affair, it is necessary that I should describe
the place.

Trenton is situated on a rising ground, about
three quarters of a mile distant from the Dela-
ware, on the eastern or Jersey side; and is cut
into two divisions by a small creek or ri\Tilet, suffi-
cient to turn a mill which is on it, after which
it empties itself at nearly right angles into the
Delaware. The upper division, which is that to
the northeast, contains about seventy or eighty
houses, and the lower about forty or fifty. The
ground on each side this creek, and on which the
houses are, is likewise rising, and the two divisions
present an agreeable prospect to each other, with
the creek between, on which there is a small stone
bridge of one arch.

Scarcely had General Washington taken post
here, and before the several parties of militia, out

207

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

on detachments, or on their way, could be col-
lected, than the British, leaving behind them a
strong garrison at Princeton, marched suddenly
and entered Trenton at the upper or northeast
quarter. A party of the Americans skirmished
with the advanced party of the British, to afford
time for removing the store and baggage, and
withdrawing over the bridge.

In a little time the British had possession of
one half of the town. General Washington of
the other; and the creek only separated the two
armies. Nothing could be a more critical situa-
tion than this, and if ever the fate of America
depended upon the event of a day, it was now.
The Delaware was filling fast with large sheets
of driving ice, and was impassable; of course no
retreat into Pennsylvania could be effected,
neither is it possible, in the face of an enemy,
to pass a river of such extent. The roads were
broken and rugged with the frost, and the main
road was occupied by the enemy.

About four o'clock a party of the British ap-
proached the bridge, with a design to gain it, but
were repulsed. They made no more attempts,
though the creek itself is passable anywhere
between the bridge and the Delaware. It runs
in a rugged, natural made ditch, over which a
208

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

person may pass with little difficulty, the stream
being rapid and shallow. Evening was now com-
ing on, and the British, believing they had all the
advantages they could wish for, and that they
could use them when they pleased, discontinued
all further operations, and held themselves pre-
pared to make the attack next morning.

But the next morning produced a scene as
elegant as it was unexpected. The British were
under arms and ready to march to action, when
one of their light-horse from Princeton came fu-
riously down the street, with an account that Gen-
eral Washington had that morning attacked and
carried the British post at that place, and was
proceeding on to seize the magazine at Bruns-
wick ; on which the British, who were then on the
point of making an assault on the evacuated
camp of the Americans, wheeled about, and in a
fit of consternation marched for Princeton.

This retreat is one of those extraordinary cir-
cumstances, that in future ages may probably
pass for fable. For it will with difficulty be be-
lieved, that two armies, on which such important
consequences depended, should be crowded mto
so small a space as Trenton ; and that the one, on
the eve of an engagement, when every ear is sup-
posed to be open, and every degree of watchful-

209

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

ness employed, should move completely from the
ground, with all its stores, baggage and artillery,
unknown and even unsuspected by the other.
And so entirely were the British deceived, that
when they heard the report of the cannon and
small arms at Princeton, they supposed it to be
thunder, though in the depth of winter.

General Washington, the better to cover and
disguise his retreat from Trenton, had ordered
a line of fires to be lighted up in front of his
camp. These not only served to give an appear-
ance of going to rest, and continuing that decep-
tion, but they effectually concealed from the
British whatever was acting behind them, for
flame can no more be seen through than a wall,
and in this situation, it may with propriety be
said, they became a pillar of fire to one army,
and a pillar of cloud to the other. After this,
by a circuitous march of about eighteen miles,
the Americans reached Princeton early in the
morning.

The number of prisoners taken was between
two and three hundred, with which General
Washington inmiediately set off. The van of the
British Army from Trenton entered Princeton
about an hour after the Americans had left it,
who, continuing their march for the remainder
210

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

of the day, arrived in the evening at a convenient
situation, wide of the main road to Brunswick,
and about sixteen miles distant from Princeton.
But so wearied and exhausted were they, with the
continual and unabated service and fatigue of
two days and a night, from action to action, with-
out shelter, and almost without refreshment, that
the bare and frozen ground, with no other cover-
ing than the sky, became to them a place of com-
fortable rest.

By these two events, and with but a little
comparative force to accomplish them, the Amer-
icans closed with advantage a campaign, which,
but a few days before, threatened the country
with destruction. The British Army, apprehen-
sive for the safety of their magazines at Bruns-
wick, eighteen miles distant, marched imme-
diately for that place, where they arrived late
in the evening, and from which they made no
attempts to move, for nearly five months.

Having thus stated the principal outlines of
these two most interesting actions, I shall now
quit them, to put the Abbe right in his mis-stated
account of the debt and paper money of America,
wherein, speaking of these matters, he says:

These ideal riches were rejected. The more the
multiplication of them was urged by want, the greater

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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

did their depreciation grow. The Congress was indig-
nant at the affront given to its money, and declared
all those to be traitors to their country, who should
not receive it as they would have received gold itself.

Did not this body know, that prepossessions are
no more to be controlled than feelings are? Did it not
perceive that, in the present crisis, every rational man
would be afraid of exposing his fortune? Did it not
see, that at the beginning of a republic, it permitted
to itself the exercise of such acts of despotism as are
unknown even in the countries which are molded to,
and become familiar with, servitude and oppression?
Could it pretend that it did not punish a want of con-
fidence with the pains which would have been scarcely
merited by revolt and treason? Of all this was the
Congress well aware. But it had no choice of means.
Its despised and despicable scraps of paper were act-
ually thirty times below their original value, when more
of them were ordered to be made. On the thirteenth of
September, 1779, there was of this paper among the
public, to the amount of £35,544,155. The State owed
moreover £8,385,356, without reckoning the particular
debts of single provinces.

In the above recited passages, the Abbe
speaks as if the United States had contracted a
debt of upwards of forty milhon pounds sterling,
besides the debts of the individual states. After
which, speaking of foreign trade with America,
he says, that "those countries in Europe, which
are truly commercial ones, knowing that North
America had been reduced to contract debts, at
the epoch even of her greatest prosperity, wisely
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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

thought that, in her present distress, she would
be able to pay but very little, for what might be
carried to her."

I know it must be extremely difficult to make
foreigners understand the nature and circum-
stances of our paper money, because there are
natives, who do not understand it themselves.
But with us its fate is now determined. Com-
mon consent has consigned it to rest with that
kind of regard, which the long service of inan-
imate things insensibly obtains from mankind.
Every stone in the bridge, that has carried us
over, seems to have a claim upon our esteem.
But this was a corner-stone, and its usefulness
cannot be forgotten. There is something in a
grateful mind, which extends itself even to
things that can neither be benefited by regard,
nor suffer by neglect; but so it is; and almost
every man is sensible of the effect.

But to return. The paper money, though
issued from Congress under the name of dollars,
did not come from that body always at that
value. Those which were issued the first year,
were equal to gold and silver. The second year
less, the third still less, and so on, for nearly the
space of five years: at the end of which, I
imagine, that the whole value, at which Congress

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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

might pay away the several emissions, taking
them together, was about ten or twelve million
pounds sterUng.

Now as it would have taken ten or twelve
millions sterling of taxes to carry on the war for
five years, and, as while this money was issuing,
and likewise depreciating down to nothing, there
were none, or few valuable taxes paid; conse-
quently the event to the public was the same,
whether they sunk ten or twelve millions of ex-
pended money, by depreciation, or paid ten or
twelve millions by taxation; for as they did not
do both, and chose to do one, the matter which,
in a general view, was indifferent. And there-
fore, what the Abbe supposes to be a debt, has
now no existence; it having been paid, by every-
body consenting to reduce, at his own expense,
from the value of the bills continually passing
among themselves, a sum, equal, nearly, to what
the expense of the war was for five years.

Again. The paper money having now ceased,
and the depreciation with it, and gold and silver
supphed its place, the war will now be carried
on by taxation, which will draw from the pubHc
a considerable less sum than what the deprecia-
tion drew ; but as while they pay the former, they
do not suffer the latter, and as when they suffered
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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

the latter, they did not pay the former, the thing
will be nearly equal, with this moral advantage,
that taxation occasions frugality and thought,
and depreciation produces dissipation and care-
lessness.

And again. If a man's portion of taxes
comes to less than what he lost by the deprecia-
tion, it proves that the alteration is in his favor.
If it comes to more and he is justly assessed, it
shows that he did not sustain his proper share of
depreciation, because the one was as operatively
his tax as the other.

It is true, that it never was intended, neither
was it foreseen, that the debt contained in the
paper currency should sink itself in this manner ;
but as, by the voluntary conduct of all and of
everj^one, it has arrived at this fate, the debt is
paid by those who owed it.

Perhaps nothing was ever so universally the
act of a country as this. Government had no
hand in it. Every man depreciated his own
money by his own consent, for such was the ef-
fect, which the raising the nominal value of goods
produced. But as by such reduction he sustained
a loss equal to what he must have paid to sink it
by taxation, therefore the hne of justice is to
consider his loss by the depreciation as his tax

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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

for that time, and not to tax him when the war
is over, to make that money good in any other
person's hands, which became nothing in his own.

Again. The paper currency was issued for
the express purpose of carrying on the war. It
has performed that service, without any other
material charge to the pubHc, while it lasted.
But to suppose, as some did, that, at the end of
the war, it was to grow into gold or silver, or
become equal thereto, was to suppose that we
were to get two hundred millions of dollars by
going to war, instead of paying the cost of car-
rying it on.

But if anything in the situation of America,
as to her currency or her circumstances, yet re-
mains not understood, then let it be remembered,
that this war is the public's war — the country's
war. It is their independence that is to be sup-
ported ; their property that is to be secured ; their
country that is to be saved. Here, Government,
the army, and the people, are mutually and
reciprocally one. In other wars, kings may lose
their thrones, and their dominions; but here, the
loss must fall on the majesty of the multitude,
and the property they are contending to save.
Every man being sensible of this, he goes to the
field, or pays his portion of the charge, as the
216

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

sovereign of his own possessions; and when he
is conquered a monarch falls.

The remark, which the Abbe in the conclusion
of the passage has made, respecting America's
contracting debts in the time of her prosperity,
(by which he means, before the breaking out of
hostilities), serves to show, though he has not
made the application, the very great commercial
difference between a dependent and an independ-
ent country. In a state of dependence, and with
a fettered commerce, though with all the advan-
tages of peace, her trade could not balance itself,
and she annually run into debt. But now, in a
state of independence, though involved in war,
she requires no credit: her stores are full of mer-
chandize, and gold and silver are become the cur-
rency of the country. How these things have
established themselves is difficult to account for:
but they are facts, and facts are more powerful
than arguments.

As it is probable this letter will undergo a re-
publication in Europe, the remarks here thrown
together will serve to show the extreme folly of
Britain in resting her hopes of success on the ex-
tinction of our paper currency. The expecta-
tion is at once so childish and forlorn, that it

217

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

places her in the laughable condition of a fam-
ished lion watching for prey at a spider's web.

From this account of the currency, the Abbe
proceeds to state the condition of America in the
winter of 1777, and the spring following; and
closes his observations with mentioning the
Treaty of Alliance, which was signed in France,
and the propositions of the British Ministry,
which were rejected in America. But in the
manner in which the Abbe has arranged his facts,
there is a very material error, that not only he,
but other European historians have fallen into;
none of them having assigned the true cause why
the British proposals were rejected, and all of
them have assigned a wrong one.

In the winter of 1778, and spring following.
Congress were assembled at York Town, in
Pennsylvania, the British were in possession of
Philadelphia, and General Washington with the
army was encamped in huts at Valley Forge
twenty-five miles distant therefrom. To all, who
can remember, it was a season of hardship, but
not despair; and the Abbe, speaking of this
period and its inconveniences, says :

A multitude of privations, added to so many other
misfortunes, might make the Americans regret their
former tranquillity, and incline them to an accommoda-

218

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

tion with England. In vain had the people been bound
to the new government by the sacredness of oaths and
the influence of religion. In vain had endeavors been
used to convince them that it was impossible to treat
safely with a countr}', in which one Parliament might
overturn what should have been established by another.
In vain had they been threatened with the eternal re-
sentment of an exasperated and vindictive enemy. It
was possible that these distant troubles might not be
balanced by the weight of present evils.

So thought the British Ministry, when they sent to
the new world public agents, authorized to offer every-
thing except independence to these very Americans,
from whom they had two years before exacted an un-
conditional submission. It is not improbable but, that
by this plan of conciliation, a few months sooner, some
effect might have been produced. But at the period,
at which it was proposed by the Court of London, it
was rejected with disdain, because this measure ap-
peared but as an argument of fear and weakness. The
people were already reassured. The Congress, the gen-
erals, the troops, the bold and skilful men, in each col-
ony had possessed themselves of the authority ; every
thing had recovered its first spirit. This was the effect
of a treaty of friendship and commerce between the
United States and the Court of Versailles, signed the
sixth of February, 1778.

On this passage of the Abbe's I cannot help
remarking, that, to unite time with circumstance,
is a material nicety in history; the want of which
frequently throws it into endless confusion and
mistake, occasions a total separation between
causes and consequences and connects them with
yiii-io 219

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

others they are not immediately, and sometimes
not at all, related to.

The Abbe, in saying that the offers of the
British Ministry "were rejected with disdain," is
right, as to the fact, but wrong as to the time;
and this error in the time, has occasioned him to
be mistaken in the cause.

The signing the Treaty of Paris the sixth of
February, 1778, could have no eiFect on the mind
or politics of America, until it was known in
America: and therefore, when the Abbe says, that
the rejection of the British offers was in conse-
quence of the alliance, he must mean, that it was
in consequence of the alliance being known in
America ; which was not the case : and by this mis-
take he not only takes from her the reputation,
which her unshaken fortitude in that trying situ-
ation deserves, but is likewise led very injuriously
to suppose, that had she not known of the treaty,
the offers would probably have been accepted;
whereas she knew nothing of the treaty at the
time of the rejection, and consequently did not re-
ject them on that ground.

The propositions or offers above mentioned,
were contained in two bills brought into the Brit-
ish Parliament by Lord North, on the seven-
teenth of February, 1778. Those biUs were hur-
220

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

ried through both houses with unusual haste, and
before they had gone through all the customary
forms of Parliament, copies of them were sent
over to Lord Howe and General Howe, then in
Philadelphia, who were likewise commissioners.
General Howe ordered them to be printed in
Philadelphia, and sent copies of them by a flag
to General Washington, to be forwarded to Con-
gress at York Town, where they arrived the
twenty-first of April, 1778. Thus much for the
arrival of the bills in America.

Congress, as is their usual mode, appointed a
committee from their own body, to examine them
and report thereon. The report was brought in
the next day, (the twenty-second), was read,
and unanimously agreed to, entered on their
journals, and pubHshed for the information of
the country. Now this report must be the re-
jection to which the Abbe alludes, because Con-
gress gave no other formal opinion on those bills
and propositions: and on a subsequent apphca-
tion from the British commissioners, dated the
twenty-seventh of May, and received at York
Town [Pa.] the sixth of June, Congress imme-
diately referred them for an answer, to their
printed resolves of the twenty-second of April.
Thus much for the rejection of the offers.

221

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

On the second of May, that is, eleven days
after the above rejection was made, the treaty be-
tween the United States and France arrived at
York Town ; and until this moment Congress had
not the least notice or idea, that such a measure
was in any train of execution. But lest this
declaration of mine should pass only for assertion,
I shall support it by proof, for it is material to
the character and principle of the Revolution to
show, that no condition of America, since the
Declaration of Independence, however trying and
severe, ever operated to produce the most distant
idea of yielding it up either by force, distress,
artifice or persuasion. And this proof is the
more necessary, because it was the system of the
British Ministry at this time, as well as before
and since, to hold out to the European powers
that America was unfixed in her resolutions and
policy; hoping by this artifice to lessen her repu-
tation in Europe, and weaken the confidence
which those powers or any of them might be
inclined to place in her.

At the time these matters were transacting, I
was secretary in the Foreign Department of Con-
gress. All the political letters from the Amer-
ican commissioners rested in my hands, and all
that were officially written went from my office;
222

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

and so far from Congress knowing anything of
the signing the treaty, at the time they rejected
the British offers, they had not received a hne of
information from their commissioners at Paris,
on any subject whatever, for upwards of a
twelve-month. Probably the loss of the port of
Philadelphia and the navigation of the Delaware,
together with the danger of the seas, covered at
this time with British cruisers, contributed to the
disappointment.

One packet, it is true, arrived at York Town
in January preceding, which was about three
months before the arrival of the treaty; but,
strange as it may appear, every letter had been
taken out, before it was put on board the vessel
which brought it from France, and blank white
paper put in their stead.

Having thus stated the time when the propos-
als from the British commissioners were first re-
ceived, and likewise the time when the Treaty of
Alliance arrived, and shown that the rejection of
the former was eleven days prior to the arrival
of the latter, and without the least knowledge of
such circumstance having taken place or being
about to take place; the rejection, therefore,
must, and ought to be attributed to the fixed, un-
varied sentiments of America respecting the

223

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

enemy she is at war with, and her determina-
tion to support her independence to the last pub-
lic effort, and not to any new circumstance which
had taken place in her favor, which at that time
she did not and could not know of.

Besides, there is a vigor of determination and
spirit of defiance in the language of the rejec-
tion, (which I here subjoin), which derive their
greatest glory by appearing before the treaty
was known; for that which is bravery in dis-
tress, becomes insult in prosperity : and the treaty
placed America on such a strong foundation, that
had she then known it, the answer which she gave,
would have appeared rather as an air of triumph,
than as the glowing serenity of fortitude.

Upon the whole, the Abbe appears to have
entirely mistaken the matter; for instead of at-
tributing the rejection of the propositions to our
knowledge of the Treaty of Alliance; he should
have attributed the origin of them in the British
Cabinet, to their knowledge of that event. And
then the reason why they were hurried over to
America in the state of bills, that is, before they
were passed into acts, is easily accounted for,
which is that they might have the chance of reach-
ing America before any knowledge of the treaty
should arrive, which they were lucky enough to
224

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

do, and there met the fate they so riclily merited.
That these bills were brought into the Brit-
ish Parliament after the treaty with France was
signed, is proved from the dates : the treaty being
on the sixth, and the bills on the seventeenth of
February. And that the signing the treaty was
known in Parliament, when the bills were brought
in, is likewise proved by a speech of Mr. Fox, on
the said seventeenth of February, who, in reply
to Lord North, informed the House of the treaty
being signed, and challenged the Minister's
knowledge of the same fact.*

* In Congress, April 22, 1788.

The committee to whom was referred the General's letter of
the eighteenth, containing a certain printed paper sent from Phila-
delphia, purporting to be the draft of a bill for declaring the
intentions of the Parliament of Great Britain, as to the exercise
of what they are pleased to term their right of imposing taxes
within these United States: and also the draft of a biU to en-
able the King of Great Britain to appoint commissioners, with
powers to treat, consult, and agree upon the means of quieting
certain disorders within the said states, beg leave to observe,

That the said paper being industriously circulated by emis-
saries of the enemy, in a partial and secret manner, the same
ought to be forthwith printed for the public information.

The committee cannot ascertain whether the contents of the said
paper have been framed in Philadelphia, or in Great Britain, much
less whether the same are really and truly intended to be brought
into the Parliament of that Kingdom, or whether the said Parlia-
ment will confer thereon the usual solemnities of their laws. But
are inclined to believe this will happen, for the following reasons:

1st, Because their General hath made divers feeble efforts to
set on foot some kind of treaty during the last winter, though,
either from a mistaken idea of his own dignity and importance,
the want of information, or some other cause, he hath not made
application to those who are invested with a proper authority.

225

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

Though I am not surprised to see the Abbe
mistaken in matters of history, acted at such a
distance from his sphere of immediate observa-
tion, yet I am more than surprised to find him

2d, Because they suppose that the fallacious idea of a cessa-
tion of hostilities will render these states remiss in their prepara-
tions for war.

3d, Because believing the Americans wearied with war, they
suppose we will accede to their terms for the sake of peace.

4th, Because they suppose our negotiations may be subject
to a like corrupt influence with their debates.

5th, Because they expect from this step the same effects
they did from what one of their ministers thought proper to call
his conciliatory motion, viz., that it will prevent foreign powers
from giving aid to these states; that it will lead their own sub-
jects to continue a little longer the present war: and that it will
detach some weak men in America, from the cause of freedom
and virtue.

6th, Because their King, from his own showing, hath reason
to apprehend that his fleets and armies, instead of being em-
ployed against the territories of these states, will be necessary for
the defense of his own dominions. And,

7th, Because the impracticability of subjugating this country
being every day more and more manifest, it is their interest to
extricate themselves from the war upon any terms.

The committee beg leave further to observe, that upon a
supposition the matters contained in the said paper will really go
into the British statute books, they serve to show, in a clear point
of view, the weakness and wickedness of the enemy.

Their weakness.

1st, Because they formerly declared, not only that they had a
right to bind the inhabitants of these states in all cases whatso-
ever, but also that the said inhabitants should absolutely and
unconditionally submit to the exercise of that right. And this
submission they have endeavored to exact by the sword. Receding
from this claim, therefore, imder the present circumstances, shows
their inability to enforce it.

2d, Because their Prince hath heretofore rejected the
humblest petitions of the representatives of America, praying to
be considered as subjects, and protected in the enjoyment of

226

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

wrong" (or at least what appears so to me) in
the well enlightened field of philosophical reflec-
tion. Here the materials are his own ; created b}'
himself; and the error, therefore, is an act of the
mind.

peace, liberty and safety: and hath waged a most cruel war
against them, and employed the savages to butcher innocent
women and children. But now the same Prince pretends to treat
with those very representatives, and grant to the arms of America
what he refused to her prayers.

3d, Because they have uniformly labored to conquer this con-
tinent, rejecting every idea of accommodation proposed to them,
from a confidence in their own strength. Wherefore it is evident,
from the change in their mode of attack, that they have lost this
confidence. And,

4th, Because the constant language, spoken, not only by
their ministers, but by the most public and authentic acts of the
nation, hath been, that it is incompatible with their dignity to
treat with the Americans while they have arms in their hands.
Notwithstanding which, an offer is now about to be made for
treaty.

The vnckedness and insincerity of the enemy appear from
the following considerations:

1st, Either the hills now to be passed contain a direct or in-
direct cession of a part of their former claims, or they do not.
If they do, then it is acknowledged that they have sacrificed many
brave men in an uunjust quarrel. If they do not, then they are cal-
culated to deceive America into terms, to which neither argument
before the war, nor force since, could procure her assent.

2d, The first of these hills appears, from the title, to be a
declaration of the intentions of the British Parliament concerning
the exercise of the right of imposing taxes within these states.
Wherefore, should these states treat under the said bill, they
would indirectly acknowledge that right, to obtain which ac-
knowledgment the present war hath been avowedly undertaken
and prosecuted on the part of Great Britain.

3d, Should such pretended right be so acquiesced in, then, of
consequence the same right might be exercised whenever the
British Parliament should find themselves in a different temper
and dispositions since it must depend upon those, and such like

227

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

Hitherto my remarks have been confined to
circumstance; the order in which they arose, and
the events they produced. In these, my informa-
tion being better than the Abbe's, my task was

contingencies, how far men will act according to their former
intentions.

4th, The said first bill, in the bodj thereof, containeth no
new matter, but is precisely the same with the motion before-
mentioned, and liable to all the objections which lay against the
said motion, excepting the following particular, viz., that by the
motion actual taxation was to be suspended, so long as America
should give as much as the said Parliament might think proper:
whereas, by the proposed bill, it is to be suspended, as long as
future parliaments continue of the same mind with the present.

5th, From the second bill it appears, that the British King
may, if he pleases, appoint commissioners to treat and agree with
those, whom they please, about a variety of things therein men-
tioned. But such treaties and agreements are to be of no validity
without the concurrence of the said Parliament, except so far as
they relate to the suspension of hostilities, and of certain of their
acts, the granting of pardons, and the appointing of governors
to these sovereign, free and independent states. Wherefore, the
said Parliament have reserved to themselves, in express words, the
power of setting aside any such treaty, and taking the advantage
of any circumstances which may arise to subject this continent to
their usurpations.

6th, The said bill, by holding forth a tender of pardon, im-
plies a criminality in our justifiable resistance, and consequently,
to treat under it would be an implied acknowledgment that the
inhabitants of these states were what Britain has declared them
to be. Rebels.

7th, The inhabitants of these states being claimed by them
as subjects, they may infer, from the nature of the negotiation
now pretended to be set on foot, that the said inhabitants would
of right be afterwards bound by such laws as they should make.
Wherefore, any agreement entered into on such negotiation might
at any future time be repealed. And,

8th, Because the said bill purports, that the commissioners
therein mentioned may treat with private individuals: a measure
highly derogatory to the dignity of national character.

228

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

easy. How I may succeed in controverting mat-
ters of sentiment and opinion, with one whom
years, experience, and long estabhshed reputa-
tion have placed in a superior line, I am less con-

From all which it appears evident to your committee, that
the said bills are intended to operate upon the hopes and fears
of the good people of these states, so as to create divisions among
them, and a defection from the common cause, now by the bless-
ing of Divine Providence drawing near to a favorable issue. That
they are the sequel of that insidious plan, which from the days of
the Stamp Act down to the present time, hath involved this country
in contention and bloodshed. And that, as in other cases so in
this, although circumstances may force them at times to recede
from the unjustifiable claims, there can be no doubt but they will
as heretofore, upon the first favorable occasion, again display that
lust of domination, which hath rent in twain the mighty empire
of Britain.

Upon the whole matter, the committee beg leave to report it
as their opinion, that as the Americans imited in this arduous
contest upon principles of common interest, for the defense of
common rights and privileges, which union hath been cemented
by common calamities and by mutual good offices and affection,
so the great cause for which they contend, and in which all man-
kind are interested, must derive its success from the continuance
of that union. Wherefore, any man, or body of men, who should
presume to make any separate or partial convention or agreement
with commissioners under the Crown of Great Britain, or any of
them, ought to be considered and treated as open and avowed
enemies of the United States.

And further your committee beg leave to report it as their
opinion, that these United States cannot with propriety, hold any
conference or treaty with any commissioners on the part of Great
Britain, unless they shall, as a preliminary thereto, either with-
draw their fleets and armies, or else, in positive and express
terms, acknowledge the independence of the said states.

And inasmuch as it appears to be the design of the enemies
of these states to lull them into a fatal security — to the end that
they may act with becoming weight and importance, it is the
opinion of your committee, that the several states be called upon
to use the utmost strenuous exertions to have their respective

229

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

fident in; but as they fall within the scope of
my observations it would be improper to pass
them over.

From this part of the Abbe's work to the lat-
ter end, I find several expressions, which appear
to me to start, with cynical complexion, from the
path of liberal thinking, or at least they are so
involved as to lose many of the beauties which
distinguish other parts of the performance.

The Abbe having brought his work to the

quotas of Continental troops in the field as soon as possible, and
that all the militia of the said states be held in readiness, to act
as occasion may require.

The following is the answer of Congress to the second application
of the commissioners:

"Sir: York Town, June 6, 1778,

" I have had the honor of laying your letter of the third instant,
with the acts of the British Parliament which came inclosed,
before Congress: and I am instructed to acquaint you, Sir, that
they have already expressed their sentiments upon bills, not essen-
tially different from those acts, in a publication of the twenty-
second of April last.

" Be assured, Sir, when the King of Great Britain shall be
seriously disposed to put an end to the unprovoked and cruel
war waged against these United States, Congress will readUy
attend to such terms of peace, as may consist with the honor
of independent nations, the interest of their constituents and the
sacred regard they mean to pay to treaties. I have the honor to
be, Sir,

Your most obedient, and

most humble servant.
HENRY LAURENS,

President of Congress."
His Excellency,
Sir Henry Clinton, K. B. Philadelphia.

230

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

period when the Treaty of Alliance between
France and the United States commenced, pro-
ceeds to make some remarks thereon.

In short, (says he), philosophy, whose first senti-
ment is the desire to see all governments just and all
people happy, in casting her eyes upon this alliance of
a monarchy, with a people who are defending their
liberty, is curious to know its motive. She sees at once
too clearly, that the happiness of mankind has no part
in it.

Whatever train of thinking or of temper the
Abbe might be in, when he penned this expres-
sion, matters not. They will neither qualify the
sentiment, nor add to its defect. If right, it
needs no apology ; if wrong, it merits no excuse.
It is sent into the world as an opinion of philos-
ophy, and may be examined without regard to
the author.

It seems to be a defect, connected with in-
genuity, that it often employs itself more in mat-
ters of curiosity, than usefulness. Man must
be the privy councillor of fate, or something is
not right. He must know the springs, the whys
and wherefores of everything, or he sits down
unsatisfied. Whether this be a crime, or only
a caprice of humanity, I am not inquiring into.
I shall take the passage as I find it, and place
my objections against it.

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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

It is not so properly the motives which pro-
duced the alliance, as the consequences which are
to be produced from it, that mark out the field of
philosophical reflection. In the one we only pen-
etrate into the barren cave of secrecy, where lit-
tle can be known, and everything may be mis-
conceived ; in the other, the mind is presented with
a wide extended prospect of vegetative good, and
sees a thousand blessings budding into existence.

But the expression, even within the compass
of the Abbe's meaning, sets out with an error,
because it is made to declare that which no man
has authority to declare. Who can say that the
happiness of mankind made no part of the
motives which produced the alliance? To be able
to declare this, a man must be possessed of the
mind of all the parties concerned, and know that
their motives were something else.

In proportion as the independence of Amer-
ica became contemplated and understood, the
local advantages of it to the immediate actors,
and the numerous benefits it promised mankind,
appeared to be every day increasing ; and we saw
not a temporary good for the present race only,
but a continued good to all posterity; these mo-
tives, therefore, added to those which preceded
them, became the motives on the part of Amer-
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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

ica, which led her to propose and agree to the
Treaty of Alliance, as the best effectual method
of extending and securing happiness ; and there-
fore, with respect to us, the Abbe is wrong.

France, on the other hand, was situated very
differently. She was not acted upon by neces-
sity to seek a friend, and therefore her motive in
becoming one, has the strongest evidence of being
good, and that which is so, must have some hap-
piness for its object. With regard to herself,
she saw a train of conveniences worthy her at-
tention. By lessening the power of an enemy,
whom at the same time she sought neither to de-
stroy nor distress, she gained an advantage with-
out doing an evil, and created to herself a new
friend by associating with a country in misfor-
tune.

The springs of thought that lead to actions of
this kind, however poHtical they may be, are
nevertheless naturally beneficent; for in all
causes, good or bad, it is necessary there should
be a fitness in the mind, to enable it to act in char-
acter with the object: therefore, as a bad cause
cannot be prosecuted with a good motive, so
neither can a good cause be long supported by
a bad one: and as no man acts without a motive,
therefore in the present instance, as they cannot

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be bad, they must be admitted to be good. But
the Abbe sets out upon such an extended scale,
that he overlooks the degrees by which it is meas-
ured, and rejects the beginning of good, because
the end comes not out at once.

It is true that bad motives may in some de-
gree be brought to support a good cause or pro-
secute a good object; but it never continues long,
which is not the case with France; for either the
object will reform the mind, or the mind corrupt
the object, or else not being able, either way, to
get into unison, they will separate in disgust : and
this natural, though unperceived progress of as-
sociation or contention between the mind and the
object, is the secret cause of fidehty or defection.
Every object a man pursues, is, for the time, a
kind of mistress to his mind: if both are good
or bad, the union is natural; but if they are in
reverse, and neither can seduce nor yet reform
the other, the opposition grows into dislike, and
a separation follows.

When the cause of America first made its ap-
pearance on the stage of the universe, there were
many, who, in the style of adventurers and for-
tune-hunters, were dangling in its train, and
making their court to it with every profession of
honor and attachment. They were loud in its
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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

praise and ostentatious in its service. Every
place echoed with their ardor or their anger,
and they seemed like men in love. But, alas!
they were fortune-hunters. Their expectations
were excited, but their minds were unimpressed;
and finding it not to their purpose, nor them-
selves reformed by its influence, they ceased their
suit, and in some instances deserted and be-
trayed it.

There were others, who at first beheld Amer-
ica with indifference, and unacquainted with her
character were cautious of her company. They
treated her as one who, under the fair name of
liberty, might conceal the hideous figure of an-
archy, or the gloomy monster of tyranny. They
knew not what she was. If fair, she was fair in-
deed. But still she was suspected and though
born among us appeared to be a stranger.

Accident with some, and curiosity with others,
brought on a distant acquaintance. They ven-
tured to look at her. They felt an inclination to
speak to her. One intimacy led to another, till
the suspicion wore away, and a change of sen-
timent gradually stole upon the mind; and hav-
ing no self-interest to serve, no passion of dis-
honor to gratify, they became enamored of her
innocence, and, unaltered by misfortune or unin-
viii-n 235

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

fluenced by success, shared with fidelity in the
varieties of her fate.

This declaration of the Abbe's respecting mo-
tives, has led me unintentionally into a train of
metaphysical reasoning; but there was no other
avenue by which it could properly be approached.
To place presumption against presumption, as-
sertion against assertion, is a mode of opposition
that has no effect ; and therefore the more eligible
method was to show that the declaration does not
correspond with the natural progress of the mind,
and the influence it has upon our conduct. I
shall now quit this part and proceed to what I
have before stated, namely, that it is not so
properly the motives which produced the alliance,
as the consequences to be procured from it, that
mark out the field of philosophical reflection.

It is an observation I have already made in
some former publications, that the circle of civ-
ilization is yet incomplete. Mutual wants have
formed the individuals of each country into a
kind of national society, and here the progress of
civilization has stopped. For it is easy to see,
that nations with regard to each other (notwith-
standing the ideal civil law, which every one ex-
plains as it suits him) are like individuals in a
state of nature. They are regulated by no fixed
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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

principle, governed by no compulsive law, and
each does independently what it pleases or what
it can.

Were it possible we could have known the
world when in a state of barbarism, we might
have concluded that it never could be brought into
the order we now see it. The untamed mind was
then as hard, if not harder, to work upon in its
individual state, than the national mind is in its
present one. Yet we have seen the accomplish-
ment of one, why then should we doubt that of
the other?

There is a greater fitness in mankind to ex-
tend and complete the civilization of nations
with each other at this day, than there was to
begin it with the unconnected individuals at first ;
in the same manner that it is somewhat easier to
put together the materials of a machine after
they are formed, than it was to form them from
original matter. The present condition of the
world, differing so exceedingly from what it for-
merly was, has given a new cast to the mind of
man, more than what he appears to be sensible of.
The wants of the individual, which first pro-
duced the idea of society, are now augmented
into the wants of the nation, and he is obliged to

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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

seek from another country what before he sought
from the next person.

Letters, the tongue of the world, have in
some measure brought all mankind acquainted,
and by an extension of their uses are every day
promoting some new friendship. Through them
distant nations become capable of conversation,
and losing by degrees the awkwardness of
strangers, and the moroseness of suspicion, they
learn to know and understand each other. Sci-
ence, the partisan of no country, but the bene-
ficent patroness of all, has liberally opened a tem-
ple where all may meet. Her influence on the
mind, like the sun on the chilled earth, has long
been preparing it for higher cultivation and fur-
ther improvement. The philosopher of one coun-
try sees not an enemy in the philosopher of an-
other: he takes his seat in the temple of science,
and asks not who sits beside him.

This was not the condition of the barbarian
world. Then the wants of men were few and
the objects within his reach. While he could ac-
quire these, he lived in a state of individual inde-
pendence; the consequence of which was, there
were as many nations as persons, each contending
with the other, to secure something which he had,
or to obtain something which he had not. The
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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

world had then no business to follow, no studies
to exercise the mind. Their time was divided be-
tween sloth and fatigue. Hunting and war were
their chief occupations ; sleep and food their prin-
cipal enjoyments.

Now it is otherwise. A change in the mode
of life has made it necessary to be busy ; and man
finds a thousand things to do now which before
lie did not. Instead of placing his ideas of great-
ness in the rude achievements of the savage, he
studies arts, sciences, agriculture and commerce,
the refinements of the gentleman, the principles
of society, and the knowledge of the philosopher.

There are many things which in themselves
are neither morally good nor bad, but they are
productive of consequences, which are strongly
marked with one or other of these characters.
Thus commerce, though in itself a moral nullity,
has had a considerable influence in tempering the
human mind. It was the want of objects in the
ancient world, which occasioned in them such a
rude and perpetual turn for war. Their time
hung on their hands without the means of em-
ployment. The indolence they lived in afforded
leisure for mischief, and being all idle at once,
and equal in their circumstances, they were easily
provoked or induced to action.

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But the introduction of commerce furnished
the world with objects, which, in their extent,
reach every man, and give him something to
think about and something to do; by these his
attention is mechanically drawn from the pur-
suits which a state of indolence and an unem-
ployed mind occasioned, and he trades with the
same countries, which in former ages, tempted
by their productions, and too indolent to pur-
chase them, he would have gone to war with.

Thus, as I have already observed, the con-
dition of the world being materially changed by
the influence of science and commerce, it is put
into a fitness not only to admit of, but to desire,
an extension of civilization. The principal and
almost only remaining enemy, it now has to en-
counter, is prejudice; for it is evidently the inter-
est of mankind to agree and make the best of
life. The world has undergone its divisions of
empire, the several boundaries of which are
known and settled. The idea of conquering
countries, like the Greeks and Romans, does not
now exist; and experience has exploded the
notion of going to war for the sake of profit.
In short, the objects for war are exceedingly
diminished, and there is now left scarcely any-
thing to quarrel about, but what arises from that
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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

demon of society, prejudice, and the consequent
suUenness and untractableness of the temper.

There is something exceedingly curious in the
constitution and operation of prejudice. It has
the singular ability of accommodating itself to
all the possible varieties of the human mind.
Some passions and vices are but thinly scattered
among mankind, and find only here and there a
fitness of reception. But prejudice, hke the
spider, makes every place its home. It has
neither taste nor choice of situation, and all that
it requires is room. Everywhere, except in fire
or water, a spider will live.

So, let the mind be as naked as the walls of
an empty and forsaken tenement, gloomy as a
dungeon, or ornamented with the richest abili-
ties of thinking, let it be hot, cold, dark or hght,
lonely or inhabited, still prejudice, if undis-
turbed, will fill it with cobwebs, and live, hke the
spider, where there seems nothing to live on. If
the one prepares her food by poisoning it to her
palate and her use, the other does the same; and
as several of our passions are strongly character-
ized by the animal world, prejudice may be de-
nominated the spider of the mind.

Perhaps no two events ever united so inti-
mately and forcibly to combat and expel preju-

241

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

dice, as the Revolution of America and the alH-
ance with France. Their effects are felt, and
their influence already extends as well to the Old
World as the New. Our style and manner of
thinking have undergone a revolution more ex-
traordinary than the political revolution of the
country. We see with other eyes; we hear with
other ears; and think with other thoughts, than
those we formerly used. We can look back on
our own prejudices, as if they had been the
prejudices of other people.

We now see and know they were prejudices
and nothing else; and, relieved from their
shackles, enjoy a freedom of mind, we felt not
before. It was not all the argument, however
powerful, nor the reasoning, however eloquent,
that could have produced this change, so neces-
sary to the extension of the mind, and the cor-
diahty of the world, without the two circum-
stances of the Revolution and the alliance.

Had America dropped quietly from Britain,
no material change in sentiment had taken place.
The same notions, prejudices, and conceits would
have governed in both countries, as governed
them before, and, still the slaves of error and
education, they would have traveled on in the
beaten track of vulgar and habitual thinking.
242

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

But brought about by the means it has been, both
with regard to ourselves, to France and England,
every corner of the mind is swept of its cobwebs,
poison and dust, and made fit for the reception of
generous happiness.

Perhaps there never was an alliance on a
broader basis, than that between America and
France, and the progress of it is worth attending
to. The countries had been enemies, not proper-
ly of themselves, but through the medium of
England. They originally had no quarrel with
each other, nor any cause for one, but what arose
from the interest of England, and her arming
America against France. At the same time, the
Americans at a distance from, and unacquainted
with, the world, and tutored in all the prejudices
which governed those who governed them, con-
ceived it their duty to act as they were taught.
In doing this, they expended their substance to
make conquests, not for themselves, but for their
masters, who in return treated them as slaves.

A long succession of insolent severity, and the
separation finally occasioned by the commence-
ment of hostilities at Lexington, on the nineteenth
of April, 1775, naturally produced a new disposi-
tion of thinking. As the mind closed itself
toward England, it opened itself toward the

243

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

world, and our prejudices like our oppressions,
underwent, though less observed, a mental ex-
amination; until we found the former as incon-
sistent with reason and benevolence, as the latter
were repugnant to our civil and political rights.

While we were thus advancing by degrees
into the wide field of extended humanity, the alli-
ance with France was concluded. An alliance
not formed for the mere purpose of a day, but on
just and generous grounds, and with equal and
mutual advantages; and the easy, affectionate
manner in which the parties have since communi-
cated has made it an alliance not of courts only,
but of countries. There is now an union of mind
as well as of interest; and our hearts as well as
our prosperity call on us to support it.

The people of England not having expe-
rienced this change, had likewise no ideas of it.
They were hugging to their bosoms the same
prejudices we were trampling beneath our feet;
and they expected to keep a hold upon America,
by that narrowness of thinking which America
disdained. What they were proud of, we de-
spised ; and this is a principal cause why all their
negotiations, constructed on this ground, have
failed. We are now really another people, and
cannot again go back to ignorance and prejudice.
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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

The mind once enlightened cannot again become
dark. There is no possibility, neither is there any
term to express the supposition by, of the mind
unknowing anything it already knows; and
therefore all attempts on the part of England,
fitted to the former habit of America, and on the
expectation of their applying now, will be like
persuading a seeing man to become blind, and a
sensible one to turn an idiot. The first of which
is unnatural and the other impossible.

As to the remark which the Abbe makes on
the one country being a monarchy and the other
a republic, it can have no essential meaning.
Forms of goverimient have nothing to do with
treaties. The former are the internal police of
the countries severally; the latter their external
police jointly: and so long as each performs its
part, we have no more right or business to know
how the one or the other conducts its domestic
affairs, than we have to inquire into the private
concerns of a family.

But had the Abbe reflected for a moment, he
would have seen, that courts, or the governing
powers of all countries, be their forms what they
may, are relatively republics with each other. It
is the first and true principle of alliance. An-
tiquity may have given precedence, and power

245

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

will naturally create importance, but their equal
right is never disputed. It may likewise be
worthy of remarking, that a monarchical country
can suffer nothing in its popular happiness by
an alliance with a republican one ; and republican
governments have never been destroyed by their
external connections, but by some internal con-
vulsion or contrivance. France has been in al-
liance with the Republic of Switzerland for more
than two hundred years, and still Switzerland
retains her original form of government as en-
tire as if she had been allied with a republic like
herself ; therefore this remark of the Abbe should
go for nothing. Besides it is best mankind should
mix. There is ever something to learn, either
of manners or principle ; and it is by a free com-
munication, without regard to domestic matters,
that friendship is to be extended and prejudice
destroyed all over the world.

But notwithstanding the Abbe's high profes-
sion in favor of liberty, he appears sometimes to
forget himself, or that his theory is rather the
child of his fancy than of his judgment: for in
almost the same instant that he censures the alli-
ance, as not originally or sufficiently calculated
for the happiness of mankind, he, by a figure of
implication, accuses France for having acted so
246

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

generously and unreservedly in concluding it.
" Why did they (says he, meaning the Court of
France) tie themselves down by an inconsiderate
treaty to conditions with the Congress, which
they might themselves have held in dependence
by ample and regular supplies? "

When an author undertakes to treat of pub-
lic happiness he ought to be certain that he does
not mistake passion for right, nor imagination
for principle. Principle, like truth, needs no
contrivance. It will ever tell its own tale, and
tell it the same way. But where this is not the
case, every page must be watched, recollected,
and compared like an invented story.

I am surprised at this passage of the Abbe's.
It means nothing or it means ill; and in any
case it shows the great difference between spec-
ulative and practical knowledge. A treaty ac-
cording to the Abbe's language would have
neither duration nor affection: it might have
lasted to the end of the war, and then expired
with it. But France, by acting in a style superior
to the little politics of narrow thinking, has es-
tablished a generous fame and won the love of
a country she was before a stranger to. She had
to treat with a people who thought as nature
taught them; and, on her own part, she wisely

247

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

saw there was no present advantage to be ob-
tained by unequal terms, which could balance the
more lasting ones that might flow from a kind
and generous beginning.

From this part the Abbe advances into the
secret transactions of the two cabinets of Ver-
sailles and Madrid respecting the independence
of America; through which I mean not to follow
him. It is a circumstance sufficiently striking
without being commented on, that the former
union of America with Britain produced a power
which, in her hands, was becoming dangerous to
the world: and there is no improbabihty in sup-
posing, that had the latter known as much of
the strength of the former, before she began the
quarrel, as she has known since, that instead of
attempting to reduce her to imconditional sub-
mission, she would have proposed to her the con-
quest of Mexico. But from the countries sep-
arately, Spain has nothing to apprehend, though
from their union she had more to fear than any
other power in Europe.

The part which I shall more particularly con-
fine myself to, is that wherein the Abbe takes an
opportunity of complimenting the British Minis-
try with high encomiums of admiration, on their
248

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

rejecting the offered mediation of the Court of
Madrid, in 1779.

It must be remembered that before Spain
joined France in the war, she undertook the office
of a mediator, and made proposals to the British
King and Ministry so exceedingly favorable to
their interest, that had they been accepted, would
have become inconvenient, if not inadmissible, to
America. These proposals were nevertheless re-
jected by the British Cabinet; on which the Abbe
says —

It is m such a circumstance as this; it is In the
time when noble pride elevates the soul superior to all
terror ; when nothing is seen more dreadful than the
shame of receiving the law, and when there is no doubt
or hesitation which to choose, between ruin and dis-
honor; It is then, that the greatness of a nation is
displayed. I acknowledge, however, that men, accus-
tomed to judge of things by the event, call great and
perilous resolutions heroism or madness, according to
the good or bad success with which they have been at-
tended. If then, I should be asked, what Is the name
which shall In years to come be given to the firmness,
which was In this moment exhibited by the English,
I shall answer that I do not know. But that which
it deserves I know. I know that the annals of the world
hold out to us but rarely, the august and majestic
spectacle of a nation, which chooses rather to renounce
its duration than Its glory.

In this paragraph the conception is lofty and
the expression elegant, but the coloring is too

249

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

high for the original, and the likeness fails
tlirough an excess of graces. To fit the powers
of thinking and the turn of language to the sub-
ject, so as to bring out a clear conclusion that
shall hit the point in question and nothing else,
is the true criterion of writing. But the greater
part of the Abbe's writings (if he will pardon me
the remark) appear to me uncentral and bur-
dened with variety. They represent a beautiful
wilderness without paths; in which the eye is di-
verted by everything without being particularly
directed to anything ; and in which it is agreeable
to be lost, and difficult to find the way out.

Before I offer any other remark on the spirit
and composition of the above passage, I shall
compare it with the circumstance it alludes to.

The circumstance then does not deserve the
encomium. The rejection was not prompted by
her fortitude but her vanity. She did not view it
as a case of despair or even of extreme danger,
and consequently the determination to renounce
her duration rather than her glory, cannot apply
to the condition of her mind. She had then high
expectations of subjugating America, and had
no other naval force against her than France;
neither was she certain that rejecting the media-
tion of Spain would combine that power with
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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

France. New meditations might arise more fa-
vorable than those she had refused. But if they
should not, and Spain should join, she still saw
that it would only bring out her naval force
against France and Spain, which was not wanted
and could not be employed against America, and
habits of thinking had taught her to believe her-
self superior to both.

But in any case to which the consequence
might point, there was nothing to impress her
with the idea of renouncing her duration. It is
not the policy of Europe to suffer the extinction
of any power, but only to lop off or prevent its
dangerous increase. She was likewise freed by
situation from the internal and immediate hor-
rors of invasion; was rolling in dissipation and
looking for conquests; and though she suffered
nothing but the expense of war, she still had a
greedy eye to magnificent reimbursement.

But if the Abbe is delighted with high and
striking singularities of character, he might, in
America, have found ample field for encomium.
Here was a people, who could not know what
part the world would take for, or against them;
and who were venturing on an untried scheme, in
opposition to a power, against which more for-
midable nations had failed. They had every-
viii-18 251

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

thing to learn but the principles which supported
them, and everything to procure that was neces-
sary for their defense. They have at times seen
themselves as low as distress could make them,
without showing the least decrease of forti-
tude; and been raised again by the most unex-
pected events, without discovering an unmanly
discomposure of joy. To hesitate or to despair
are conditions equally unknown in America.
Her mind was prepared for everj^thing; because
her original and final resolution of succeeding or
perishing included all possible circumstances.

The rejection of the British propositions in
the year 1778, circumstanced as America was at
that time, is a far greater instance of unshaken
fortitude than the refusal of the Spanish media-
tion by the Court of London: and other histori-
ans, besides the Abbe, struck with the vastness of
her conduct therein, have, hke liimself , attributed
it to a circumstance which was then unknown,
the alHance with France. Their error shows their
idea of its greatness ; because in order to account
for it, they have sought a cause suited to its mag-
nitude, without knowing that the cause existed
in the principles of the country.*

* Extract from "A short Review of the present Reign," in
England, p. 45, in the new "Annual Register," for the year 1780.

252

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

But this passionate encomium of the Abbe is
deservedly subject to moral and philosophical
objections. It is the effusion of wild thinking,
and has a tendency to prevent that humanity of
reflection which the criminal conduct of Britain
enjoins on her as a duty. It is a laudanum to
courtly iniquity. It keeps in intoxicated sleep
the conscience of a nation; and more mischief is
effected by wrapping up guilt in splendid ex-
cuse, than by directly patronizing it.

Britain is now the only country which holds
the world in disturbance and war ; and instead of
paying compliments to the excess of her crimes,
the Abbe would have appeared much more in
character, had he put to her, or to her monarch,
this serious question —

Are there not miseries enough in the world,
too difficult to be encountered and too pointed to
be born, without studying to enlarge the list
and arming it with new destruction? Is life so

" The commissioners, who, in consequence of Lord North's con-
ciliatory bills, went over to America, to propose terms of peace
to the colonies, were wholly unsuccessful. The concessions which
formerly would have been received with the utmost gratitude,
were rejected with disdain. Now was the time of American pride
and haughtiness. It is probable, however, that it was not pride
and haughtiness alone that dictated the resolutions of Congress,
but a distrust of the sincerity of the offers of Britain, a determin-
ation not to give up their independence, and, above all, the en-
gagements into which they had entered by their late treaty with
France."

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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

very long that it is necessary, nay even a duty,
to shake the sand and hasten out the period of
duration? Is the path so elegantly smooth, so
decked on every side and carpeted with joys, that
wretchedness is wanted to enrich it as a soil ? Go
ask thine acliing heart, when sorrow from a thou-
sand causes wounds it, go ask thy sickened self,
when every medicine fails, whether this be the
case or not?

Quitting my remarks on this head, I proceed
to another, in which the Abbe has let loose a vein
of ill-nature, and, what is still worse, of injustice.

After cavilling at the treaty, he goes on to
characterize the several parties combined in the
war.

Is it possible, (says the Abbe), that a strict union
should long subsist amongst confederates, of characters
so opposite as the hasty, light, disdainful Frenchman,
the jealous, haughty, sly, slow, circumspect Spaniard,
and the American, who is secretly snatching a look at
the mother country, and would rejoice, were they com-
patible with his independence, at the disasters of his
allies ?

To draw foolish portraits of each other, is a
mode of attack and reprisal, which the greater
part of mankind are fond of indulging. The
serious philosopher should be above it, more espe-
cially in cases from which no good can arise, and
254

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

mischief may, and where no received provocation
can palliate the offense. The Abbe might have
invented a diff'erence of character for every
country in the world, and they in return might
find others for him, till in the war of wit all real
character is lost. The pleasantry of one nation
or the gravity of another may, by a little pencil-
ling, be distorted into whimsical features, and
the painter becomes as much laughed at as the
painting.

But why did not the Abbe look a little deeper,
and bring forth the excellencies of the several
parties? — Why did he not dwell with pleasure
on that greatness of character, that superiority
of heart, which has marked the conduct of
France in her conquests, and which has forced an
acknowledgment even from Britain?

There is one line, at least, (and many others
might be discovered,) in which the confederates
unite; which is, that of a rival eminence in their
treatment of their enemies. Spain, in her con-
quest of Minorca and the Bahama Islands, con-
firms this remark. America has been invariable
in her lenity from the beginning of the war, not-
withstanding the high provocations she has ex-
perienced. It is England only who has been
insolent and cruel.

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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

But why must America be charged with a
crime undeserved by her conduct, more so by her
principles, and which, if a fact, would be fatal to
her honor? I mean the want of attachment to
her alhes, or rejoicing in their disasters. She,
it is true, has been assiduous in showing to the
world that she was not the aggressor toward
England, and that the quarrel was not of her
seeking, or, at that time, even of her wishing.
But to draw inferences from her candor, and
even from her justification, to stab her character
by, (and I see nothing else from which they can
be supposed to be drawn,) is unkind and unjust.

Does her rejection of the British propositions
in 1778, before she knew of any alliance with
France, correspond with the Abbe's description
of her mind? Does a single instance of her con-
duct since that time justify it? — But there is a
still better evidence to apply to, which is, that of
all the mails which, at different times, have been
waylaid on the road, in divers parts of America,
and taken and carried into New York, and from
which the most secret and confidential private
letters, as well as those from authority, have been
published, not one of them, I repeat it, not a
single one of them, gave countenance to such a
charge.

256

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

This is not a country where men are under
government restraint in speaking ; and if there is
any kind of restraint, it arises from a fear of
popular resentment. Now if nothing in her
private or pubhc correspondence favors such a
suggestion, and if the general disposition of the
country is such as to make it unsafe for a man to
show an appearance of joy at any disaster to her
ally, on what grounds, I ask, can the accusation
stand ? What company the Abbe may have kept
in France, we cannot know; but this we know,
that the account he gives does not apply to
America.

Had the Abbe been in America at the time the
news arrived of the disaster of the fleet under
Count de Grasse, in the West Indies, he would
have seen his vast mistake. Neither do I remem-
ber any instance, except the loss of Charleston,
in which the public mind suffered more severe
and pungent concern, or underwent more agita-
tions of hope and apprehension as to the truth or
falsehood of the report. Had the loss been aU
our own, it could not have had a deeper effect;
yet it was not one of those cases which reached
to the independence of America.

In the geographical account which the Abbe
gives of the thirteen states, he is so exceedingly

257

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

erroneous, that to attempt a particular refuta-
tion, would exceed the limits I have prescribed to
myself. And as it is a matter neither pohtical,
historical, or sentimental, and which can always
be contradicted by the extent and natural circum-
stances of the country, I shall pass it over; with
this additional remark, that I never yet saw an
European description of America that was true,
neither can any person gain a just idea of it, but
by coming to it.

Though I have already extended this letter
beyond what I at first proposed, I am, neverthe-
less, obliged to omit many observations, I orig-
inally designed to have made. I wish there had
been no occasion for making any. But the
wrong ideas which the Abbe's work had a ten-
dency to excite, and the prejudicial impressions
they might make, must be an apology for my
remarks, and the freedom with which they are
made.

I observe the Abbe has made a sort of epitome
of a considerable part of the pamphlet " Com-
mon Sense," and introduced it in that form into
his publication. But there are other places where
the Abbe has borrowed freely from the said
pamphlet without acknowledging it. The differ-
ence between society and government, with which
258

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

the pamphlet opens, is taken from it, and in
some expressions almost literally, into the Abbe's
work, as if originally his own; and through the
whole of the Abbe's remarks on this head, the
idea in " Common Sense " is so closely copied
and pursued, that the difference is only in words,
and in the arrangement of the thoughts, and not
in the thoughts themselves.*

* Common Sense.

" Some writers have so con-
founded society with govern-
ment, as to leave little or no
distinction between them ;
whereas they are not only dif-
ferent, but have different ori-
gins."

" Society is produced by our
wants and governments by our
wickedness; the former pro-
motes our happiness positively,
by uniting our affections — the
latter negatively, by restraining
our vices."

In the following paragraphs there is less likeness in the language,
but the ideas in the one are evidently copied from the other.

Abbe Ratnal.

" Care must be taken not to
confound together society with
government. That they may be
known distinctly, their origin
should be considered."

" Society originates in the
wants of men, government in
their vices. Society tends al-
ways to good — government
ought always to tend to the re-
pression of evil."

" In order to gain a clear
and just idea of the design
and end of government, let us
suppose a small number of per-
sons, meeting in some seques-
tered part of the earth, uncon-
nected with the rest; they will
then represent the peopling of
any country or of the world.
In this state of natural liberty,
society will be their first
thought. A thousand motives

" Man, throwTi, as it were,
by chance upon the globe, sur-
rounded by all the evils of
nature, obliged continually to
defend and protect his life
against the storms and tem-
pests of the air, against the in-
undations of water, against the
fire of volcanoes, against the
intemperance of frigid and tor-
rid zones, against the sterility
of the earth which refuses him

259

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

But as it is time that I should come to the end
of my letter, I shall forbear all future observa-
tions on the Abbe's work, and take a concise view

will excite them thereto. The
strength of one man is so un-
equal to his wants, and his
mind so unfitted for perpetual
solitude, that he is soon obliged
to seek assistance of another,
who, in his turn, requires the
same. Four or five united
would be able to raise a toler-
able dwelling in the midst of a
wilderness; but one man might
labor out the common period
of life, without accomplishing
anything; after he has felled
his timber, he could not remove
it, nor erect it after it was re-
moved — hunger, in the mean
time would urge him from his
work, and every different want
call him a different way,

" Disease, nay, even misfor-
tune would be death — for al-
though neither might be imme-
diately mortal, yet either of them
would disable him from living,
and reduce him to a state in
which he might rather be said
to perish than to die. Thus
necessity, like a gravitating
power, would form our newly
arrived emigrants into society,
the reciprocal benefits of which
would supersede and render
the obligations of law and gov-
ernment unnecessary, while they
remained perfectly just to each
other. But as nothing but
heaven is impregnable to vice,

260

aliment, or its baneful fecun-
dity, which makes poison spring
up beneath his feet — in short
against the teeth and claws of
savage beasts, who dispute with
him his habitation and his prey,
and, attacking his person, seem
resolved to render themselves
rulers of this globe, of which
he thinks himself to be the
master: Man, in this state,
alone and abandoned to him-
self, could do nothing for his
preservation. It was necessary,
therefore, that he should unite
himself, and associate with his
like, in order to bring together
their strength and intelligence
in common stock.

" It is by this union that he
has triumphed over so many
evils, that he has fashioned this
globe to his use, restrained the
rivers, subjugated the seas, in-
sured his subsistence, conquered
a part of the animals in obliging
them to serve him, and driven
others far from his empire, to the
depths of deserts or of woods,
where their number diminishes
from age to age. What a man
alone would not have been able
to effect, men have executed in
concert: and altogether they
preserve their work. Such is
the origin, such the advantages,
and the end of society. Gov-
ernment owes its birth to the

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

of the state of public affairs since the time in
which that performance was published.

A mind habituated to actions of meanness
and injustice, commits them without reflection,
or with a very partial one; for on what other
ground than this, can we account for the declara-
tion of war against the Dutch? To gain an idea
of the politics which actuated the British Minis-
try to this measure, we must enter into the opin-
ion which they, and the English in general, had
formed of the temper of the Dutch nation; and
from thence infer what their expectation of the
consequences would be.

Could they have imagined that Holland
would have seriously made a common cause with
France, Spain and America, the British Minis-
try would never have dared to provoke them. It
would have been a madness in politics to have
done so, unless their views were to hasten on a

it unavoidably happens, that in necessity of preventing and re-
proportion as they surmount pressing the injuries which the
the first diflBculties of emigra- associated individuals had to
tion, which bound them to- fear from one another. It is
gether in a common cause, they the sentinel who watches, in
will begin to relax in their order that the common labor-
duty and attachment to each ers be not disturbed."
other, and this remissness will
point out the necessity of es-
tablishing some form of gov-
ernment to supply the defect
of moral virtue."

261

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

period of such emphatic distress, as should jus-
tify the concessions which they saw they must
one day or other make to the world, and for
which they wanted an apology to themselves.
There is a temper in some men which seeks a
pretense for submission. Like a ship disabled in
action, and unfitted to continue it, it waits the
approach of a still larger one to strike to, and
feels relief at the opportunity. Whether this is
greatness or httleness of mind, I am not inquir-
ing into. I should suppose it to be the latter,
because it proceeds from the want of knowing
how to bear misfortune in its original state.

But the subsequent conduct of the British
Cabinet has shown that this was not their plan
of pontics, and consequently their motives must
be sought for in another line.

The truth is, that the British had formed a
very humble opinion of the Dutch nation. They
looked on them as a people who would submit
to anything ; that they might insult them as they
hked, plunder them as they pleased, and still the
Dutch dared not to be provoked.

If this be taken as the opinion of the British
Cabinet, the measure is easily accounted for; be-
cause it goes on the supposition, that when, by a
declaration of hostilities, they had robbed the
262

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

Dutch of some millions sterling, (and to rob
them was popular,) they could make peace with
them again whenever they pleased, and on almost
any terms the British Ministry should propose.
And no sooner was the plundering committed,
than the accommodation was set on foot and
failed.

When once the mind loses the sense of its
own dignity, it loses, likewise, the ability of
judging of it in another. And the American war
has thrown Britain into such a variety of absurd
situations, that, arguing from herself, she sees
not in what conduct national dignity consists in
other countries. From Holland she expected
duplicity and submission, and this mistake arose
from her having acted, in a number of instances
during the present war, the same character her-
self.

To be allied to, or connected with, Britain
seems to be an unsafe and impolitic situation.
Holland and America are instances of the reality
of this remark. Make those countries the allies
of France or Spain, and Britain will court them
with civility and treat them with respect; make
them her own allies, and she will insult and plun-
der them. In the first case, she feels some appre-
hensions at offending them because they have

263

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

support at hand; in the latter, those apprehen-
sions do not exist. Such, however, has hitherto
been her conduct.

Another measure which has taken place since
the publication of the Abbe's work, and likewise
since the time of my beginning this letter, is the
change in the British Ministry. What line the
new Cabinet will pursue respecting America, is,
at this time, unknown ; neither is it very material,
unless they are seriously disposed to a general
and honorable peace.

Repeated experience has shown, not only the
impracticability of conquering America, but
the still higher impossibility of conquering her
mind, or recalling her back to her former con-
dition of thinking. Since the commencement of
the war, which is now approaching to eight years,
thousands and tens of thousands have advanced,
and are daily advancing into the first state of
manhood, who know nothing of Britain but as a
barbarous enemy, and to whom the independence
of America appears as much the natural and es-
tablished government of the country, as that of
England does to an Englishman.

And, on the other hand, thousands of the
aged, who had British ideas, have dropped, and
are daily dropping, from the stage of business
264

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

and life. The natural progress of generation
and decay operates every hour to the disadvan-
tage of Britain. Time and death, hard enemies
to contend with, fight constantly against her in-
terest; and the bills of mortality, in every part
of America, are the thermometers of her decline.
The children in the streets are from their cradle
bred to consider her as their only foe. They hear
of her cruelties ; of their fathers, uncles, and kin-
dred killed; they see the remains of burned and
destroyed houses, and the common tradition of
the school they go to, tells them, those things
were done by the British.

These are circumstances which the mere Eng-
lish state politician, w^ho considers man only in a
state of manhood, does not attend to. He gets
entangled with parties coeval or equal with him-
self at home, and thinks not how fast the rising
generation in America is growing beyond knowl-
edge of them, or they of him. In a few years
all personal remembrances will be lost, and who
is king or minister in England, wall be httle
known and scarcely inquired after.

The new British Administration is composed
of persons who have ever been against the war,
and who have constantly reprobated all the vio-
lent measures of the former one. They consid-

265

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

ered the American war as destructive to them-
selves, and opposed it on that ground. But what
are these things to America? She has nothing to
do with EngHsh parties. The ins and the outs are
nothing to her. It is the whole country she is at
war with, or must be at peace with.

Were every minister in England a Chatham,
it would now weigh little or nothing in the scale
of American politics. Death has preserved to
the memory of this statesman, that fame, which
he, by living, would have lost. His plans and
opinions, toward the latter part of his life, would
have been attended with as many evil conse-
quences, and as much reprobated here as those of
Lord North; and considering him a wise man,
they abound with inconsistencies amounting to
absurdities.

It has apparently been the fault of many in
the late minority to suppose that America would
agree to certain terms with them, were they in
place, which she would not even listen to, from
the then Administration. This idea can answer
no other purpose than to prolong the war; and
Britain may, at the expense of many more mil-
lions, learn the fatality of such mistakes. If the
new Ministry wisely avoid this hopeless policy,
they will prove themselves better pilots and wiser
266

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

men than they are conceived to be ; for it is every
day expected to see their bark strike upon some
hidden rock and go to pieces.

But there is a line in which they may be great.
A more briUiant opening needs not to present
itself; and it is such an one as true magnanimity
would improve, and humanity rejoice in.

A total reformation is wanted in England.
She wants an expanded mind — a heart which
embraces the universe. Instead of shutting her-
self up in an island, and quarreling with the
world, she would derive more lasting happiness,
and acquire more real riches, by generously mix-
ing with it, and bravely saying, I am the enemy
of none. It is not now a time for little contriv-
ances or artful politics. The European world is
too experienced to be imposed upon, and America
too wise to be duped. It must be something new
and masterly that can succeed. The idea of
seducing America from her independence, or cor-
rupting her from her alliance, is a thought too
little for a great mind, and impossible for any
honest one, to attempt. Whenever politics are
applied to debauch mankind from their integrity,
and dissolve the virtue of human nature, they be-
come detestable; and to be a statesman on this
plan, is to be a commissioned villain. He who
viii-19 267

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

aims at it, leaves a vacancy in his character, v/hich
may be filled up with the worst of epithets.

If the disposition of England should be such,
as not to agree to a general and honorable peace,
and the war must, at all events, continue longer,
I cannot help wishing that the alliances which
America has or may enter into, may become the
only objects of the war. She wants an oppor-
tunity of showing to the world that she holds her
honor as dear and sacred as her independence,
and that she will in no situation forsake those
whom no negotiations could induce to forsake
her. Peace, to every reflecting mind, is a de-
sirable object; but that peace which is accom-
panied with a ruined character, becomes a crime
to the seducer, and a curse upon the seduced.

But where is the impossibility or even the
great difficulty of England's forming a friend-
ship with France and Spain, and making it a
national virtue to renounce forever those preju-
diced inveteracies it has been her custom to
cherish; and which, while they serve to sink her
with an increasing enormity of debt, by involving
her in fruitless wars, become likewise the bane of
her repose, and the destruction of her manners?
We had once the fetters that she has now, but
268

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

experience has shown us the mistake, and think-
ing justly, has set us right.

The true idea of a great nation, is that which
extends and promotes the principles of universal
society; whose mind rises above the atmosphere
of local thoughts, and considers mankind, of
whatever nation or profession they may be, as the
work of one Creator. The rage for conquest has
had its fashion, and its day. Why may not the
amiable virtues have the same? The Alexanders
and Cffisars of antiquity have left behind them
their monuments of destruction, and are remem-
bered with hatred ; while those more exalted char-
acters, who first taught society and science, are
blessed with the gratitude of every age and coun-
try. Of more use was one philosopher, though
a heathen, to the world, than all the heathen con-
querors that ever existed.

Should the present Revolution be distin-
guished by opening a new system of extended
civilization, it will receive from heaven the highest
evidence of approbation; and as this is a subject
to which the Abbe's powers are so eminently
suited, I recommend it to his attention with the
affection of a friend, and the ardor of a universal
citizen.

269

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

Postscript

Since closing the foregoing letter, some inti-
mations respecting a general peace have made
their way to America. On what authority or
foundation they stand, or how near or remote
such an event may be, are circumstances I am
not inquiring into. But as the subject must
sooner or later become a matter of serious atten-
tion, it may not be improper, even at this early
period, candidly to investigate some points that
are connected with it, or lead toward it.

The independence of America is at this mo-
ment as firmly established as that of any other
country in a state of war. It is not length of
time, but power that gives stability. Nations
at war, know nothing of each other on the score
of antiquity. It is their present and immediate
strength, together with their connections, that
must support them. To which we may add, that
a right which originated to-day, is as much a
right, as if it had the sanction of a thousand
years; and therefore the independence and pres-
ent governments of America are in no more dan-
ger of being subverted, because they are modern,
than that of England is secure, because it is
ancient.

270

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

The politics of Britain, so far as respects
America, were originally conceived in idiotism,
and acted in madness. There is not a step which
bears the smallest trace of rationality. In her
management of the war, she has labored to be
wretched, and studied to be hated ; and in all her
former propositions for accommodation, she has
discovered a total ignorance of mankind, and of
those natural and unalterable sensations by
which they are so generally governed. How
she may conduct herself in the present or future
business of negotiating a peace, is yet to be
proved.

He is a weak politician who does not under-
stand human nature, and penetrate into the effect
which measures of government will have upon
the mind. All the miscarriages of Britain have
arisen from this defect. The former Ministry
acted as if they supposed mankind to be without
a mind; and the present Ministry, as if America
was without a memory. The one must have sup-
posed we were incapable of feeling ; and the other
that we could not remember injuries.

There is likewise another line in which poli-
ticians mistake, which is, that of not rightly cal-
culating, or rather of misjudging, the conse-
quences which any given circumstance will pro-

271

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

duce. Nothing is more frequent, as well in com-
mon as in political life, than to hear people com-
plain, that such or such means produced an event
directly contrary to their intentions. But the
fault lies in their not judging rightly what the
event would be ; for the means produced only its
proper and natural consequences.

It is very probable that, in a treaty of peace,
Britain will contend for some post or other in
North America, perhaps Canada or Halifax, or
both : and I infer this from the known deficiency
of her poHtics, which have ever yet made use of
means whose natural event was against both her
interest and her expectation. But the question
with her ought to be, whether it is worth her while
to hold them, and what will be the consequences.

Respecting Canada, one or other of the two
following will take place, viz. : If Canada should
become populous, it will revolt ; and if it does not
become so, it wiU not be worth the expense of
holding. And the same may be said of Hahf ax,
and the country round it. But Canada never will
be populous ; neither is there any occasion for con-
trivances on one side or the other, for nature alone
will do the whole.

Britain may put herself to great expenses in
sending settlers to Canada; but the descendants
272

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

of those settlers will be Americans, as other de-
scendants have been before them. They will
look round and see the neighboring states sov-
ereign and free, respected abroad and trading at
large with the world ; and the natural love of lib-
erty, the advantages of commerce, the blessings
of independence, and of a happier climate, and a
richer soil, will draw them southward; and the
effect will be, that Britain will sustain the ex-
pense, and America reap the advantage.

One would think that the experience which
Britain has had of America, would entirely sicken
her of all thoughts of continental colonization,
and any part she might retain will only become
to her a field of jealousy and thorns, of debate
and contention, forever struggling for privi-
leges, and meditating revolt. She may form new
settlements, but they will be for us ; they will be-
come part of the United States of America ; and
that against all her contrivances to prevent it, or
without any endeavors of ours to promote it.
In the first place she cannot draw from them a
revenue, until they are able to pay one, and when
they are so they will be above subjection. Men
soon become attached to the soil they live upon,
and incorporated^with the prosperity of the place :

and it signifies^but little what opinions they come

273

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

over with, for time, interest, and new connections
will render them obsolete, and the next genera-
tion know nothing of them.

Were Britain truly wise, she would lay hold
of the present opportunity to disentangle herself
from all continental embarrassments in North
America, and that not only to avoid future broils
and troubles, but to save expenses. To speak
explicitly on the matter, I would not, were I an
European power, have Canada, under the con-
ditions that Britain must retain it, could it be
given to me. It is one of those kind of dominions
that is, and ever will be, a constant charge upon
any foreign holder.

As to Halifax, it will become useless to Eng-
land after the present war, and the loss of the
United States. A harbor, when the dominion is
gone, for the purpose of which only it was
wanted, can be attended only with expense.
There are, I doubt not, thousands of people in
England, who suppose, that these places are a
profit to the nation, whereas they are directly the
contrary, and instead of producing any revenue,
a considerable part of the revenue of England
is annually drawn off, to support the expense of
holding them.

Gibraltar is another instance of national ill-
274

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

policy. A post which in time of peace is not
wanted, and in time of war is of no use, must at
all times be useless. Instead of affording pro-
tection to a navy, it requires the aid of one to
maintain it. To suppose that Gibraltar com-
mands the Mediterranean, or the pass into it, or
the trade of it, is to suppose a detected falsehood ;
because though Britain holds the post she has lost
the other three, and every benefit she expected
from it. And to say that all this happens because
it is besieged by land and water, is to say nothing,
for this will always be the case in time of war,
while France and Spain keep up superior fleets,
and Britain holds the place. So that, though, as
an impenetrable, inaccessible rock, it may be held
by the one, it is always in the power of the other
to render it useless and excessively chargeable.

I should suppose that one of the principal
objects of Spain in besieging it, is to show to
Britain, that though she may not take it, she can
command it, that is she can shut it up, and prevent
its being used as a harbor, though not as a garri-
son. But the short way to reduce Gibraltar is to
attack the British fleet; for Gibraltar is as de-
pendent on a fleet for support, as a bird is on its
wing for food, and when wounded there it starves.

There is another circumstance which the peo-

275

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

pie of England have not only not attended to,
but seem to be utterly ignorant of, and that is,
the difference between permanent power and ac-
cidental power, considered in a national sense.

By permanent power, I mean, a natural, in-
herent, and perpetual ability in a nation, which
though always in being, may not be always in
action, or not advantageously directed; and by
accidental power, I mean, a fortunate or acci-
dental disposition or exercise of national strength,
in whole or in part.

There undoubtedly was a time when any one
European nation, with only eight or ten ships of
war, equal to the present ships of the line, could
have carried terror to all others, who had not be-
gun to build a navy, however great their natural
ability might be for that purpose: but this can
be considered only as accidental, and not as a
standard to compare permanent power by, and
could last no longer than until those powers built
as many or more ships than the former. After
this a larger fleet was necessary, in order to be
superior; and a still larger would again super-
sede it. And thus mankind have gone on build-
ing fleet upon fleet, as occasion or situation dic-
tated. And this reduces it to an original ques-
tion, which is: Which power can build and man
276

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

the largest number of ships? The natural ans-
wer to which is, that power which has the largest
revenue and the greatest number of inhabitants,
provided its situation of coast affords sufficient
conveniences.

France being a nation on the continent of
Europe, and Britain an island in its neighbor-
hood, each of them derived different ideas from
their different situations. The inhabitants of
Britain could carry on no foreign trade, nor stir
from the spot they dwelt upon, without the assist-
ance of shipping; but this was not the case with
France. The idea therefore of a navy did not
arise to France from the same original and imme-
diate necessity which produced it to England.
But the question is, that when both of them turn
their attention, and employ their revenues the
same way, which can be superior?

The annual revenue of France is nearly dou-
ble that of England, and her number of inhab-
itants more than twice as many. Each of them
has the same length of coast on the Channel, be-
sides which, France has several hundred miles
extent on the Bay of Biscay, and an opening on
the Mediterranean: and every day proves that
practise and exercise make sailors, as well as sol-
diers, in one country as well as another.

277

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

If, then, Britain can maintain a hundred ships
of the hne, France can as well support a hundi'ed
and fifty, because her revenue and her popula-
tion are as equal to the one, as those of England
are to the other. And the only reason why she
has not done it, is because she has not till very
lately attended to it. But when she sees, as she
now does, that a navy is the first engine of
power, she can easily accomplish it.

England, very falsely, and ruinously for her-
self, infers, that because she had the advantage
of France, while France had the smaller navy,
that for that reason it is always to be so. Where-
as it may be clearly seen, that the strength of
France has never yet been tried on a navy, and
that she is able to be as superior to England in
the extent of a navy, as she is in the extent of
her revenues and her population. And England
may lament the day, when, by her insolence and
injustice, she provoked in France a maritime
disposition.

It is in the power of the combined fleets to
conquer every island in the West Indies, and re-
duce all the British Navy in those places. For
were France and Spain to send their whole naval
force in Europe to those islands, it would not be
in the power of Britain to follow them with an
278

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

equal force. She would still be twenty or thirty
ships inferior, were she to send every vessel she
had, and in the meantime all the foreign trade of
England would lay exposed to the Dutch.

It is a maxim which, I am persuaded, will ever
hold good, and more especially in naval opera-
tions, that a great power ought never to move in
detachments, if it can possibly be avoided ; but to
go with its whole force to some important object,
the reduction of which shall have a decisive effect
upon the war. Had the whole of the French
and Spanish fleets in Europe come last spring to
the West Indies, every island had been their own,
Rodney their prisoner, and his fleet their prize.
From the United States the combined fleets can
be supplied with provisions, without the necessity
of drawing them from Europe, which is not the
case with England.

Accident has thrown some advantages in the
way of England, which, from the inferiority of
her navy, she had not a right to expect. For
though she had been obliged to fly before the
combined fleets, yet Rodney has twice had the
fortune to fall in with detached squadrons, to
which he was superior in numbers: the first off
Cape St. Vincent, where he had nearly two to
one, and the other in the West Indies, where he

279

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

had a majority of six ships. Victories of this
kind almost produce themselves. They are won
without honor, and suffered without disgrace:
and are ascribable to the chance of meeting, not
to the superiority of fighting. For the same ad-
miral, under whom they were obtained, was un-
able, in three former engagements, to make the
least impression on a fleet consisting of an equal
number of ships with his own, and compounded
for the events by declining the actions.*

To conclude: if it may be said that Britain
has numerous enemies, it likewise proves that
she has given numerous offenses. Insolence is
sure to provoke hatred, whether in a nation or
an individual. That want of manners in the
British Court may be seen even in its birthdays'
and New Year's odes, which are calculated to in-
fatuate the vulgar, and disgust the man of re-
finement: and her former overbearing rudeness,
and insufferable injustice on the seas, have made
every commercial nation her foe. Her fleets
were employed as engines of prey, and acted on
the surface of the deep the character which the
shark does beneath it. On the other hand, the

* See the accounts, either English or French, of three actions,
in the West Indies, between Count de Guichen and Admiral Rod-
ney, in 1780.

280

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

combined powers are taking a popular part, and
will render their reputation immortal, by estab-
lishing the perfect freedom of the ocean, to
which all countries have a right, and are inter-
ested in accomplishing. The sea is the world's
highway; and he who arrogates a prerogative
over it, transgresses the right, and justly brings
on himself the chastisement of nations.

Perhaps it might be of some service to the
future tranquillity of mankind, were an article
introduced into the next general peace, that no
one nation should, in time of peace, exceed a
certain number of ships of war. Something of
this kind seems necessary; for according to the
present fashion, half of the world will get upon
the water, and there appears to be no end to the
extent to which navies may be carried. Another
reason is, that navies add nothing to the manners
or morals of a people. The sequestered life which
attends the service, prevents the opportunities of
society, and is too apt to occasion a coarseness of
ideas and of language, and that more in ships
of war than in the commercial employ; because
in the latter they mix more with the world, and
are nearer related to it. I mention this remark
as a general one: and not applied to any one
country more than to another.

281

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

Britain has now had the trial of above seven
years, with an expense of nearly an hundred mil-
lion pounds sterling; and every month in which
she delays to conclude a peace costs her another
million sterling, over and above her ordinary ex-
penses of government, which are a million more ;
so that her total monthly expense is two million
pounds sterling, which is equal to the whole
yearly expenses of America, all charges included.
Judge then who is best able to continue it.

She has likewise many atonements to make to
an injured world, as well in one quarter as in
another. And instead of pursuing that temper
of arrogance, which serves only to sink her in the
esteem, and entail on her the dislike of all nations,
she would do well to reform her manners, re-
trench her expenses, live peaceably with her
neighbors, and think of war no more.

Philadelphia, August 21, 1782,

282

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

The following correspondence took place at
this time between Paine and Wasliington.

g BoRDENTOw^N^ Sept. 7, 1782.

I have the honor of presenting you with
fifty copies of my Letter to the Abbe Raynal,
for the use of the army, and to repeat to you my
acknowledgments for your friendship.

I fully believe we have seen our worst days
over. The spirit of the war, on the part of the
enemy, is certainly on the decline, full as much as
we think for. I draw this opinion not only from
the present promising appearance of things, and
the difficulties we know the British Cabinet is in ;
but I add to it the peculiar effect which certain
periods of time have, more or less, upon all men.

The British have accustomed themselves to
think of seven years in a manner different to
other portions of time. They acquire this partly
by habit, by reason, by religion, and by super-
stition. They serve seven years apprenticeship
— they elect their Parliament for seven years —
they punish by seven years transportation, or the
duplicate or triplicate of that term — they let their
leases in the same manner, and they read that
Jacob served seven years for one wife, and after
that seven years for another; and this particular
viii-20 283

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

period of time, by a variety of concurrences, has
obtained an influence in their minds.

They have now had seven years of war, and
are no further on the continent than when they
began. The superstitious and populous parts
will therefore conclude that it is not to be, and the
rational part of them will think they have tried
an unsuccessful and expensive project long
enough, and by these two joining issue in the
same eventful opinion, the obstinate part among
them will be beaten out; unless, consistent with
their former sagacity, they should get over the
matter by an act of Parliament, ^Ho bind time
in all cases whatsoever" or declare him a rebel.

1 observe the aff*air of Captain Asgill seems
to die away: — very probably it has been pro-
tracted on the part of Clinton and Carleton, to
gain time, to state the case to the British Ministry,
where following close on that of Colonel Haynes,
it will create new embarrassment to them. For
my own part, I am fully persuaded that a suspen-
sion of his fate, still holding it in terrorem, will
operate on a greater quantity of their passions
and vices, and restrain them more than his execu-
tion would do. However, the change of meas-
ures which seems now to be taking place, gives
somewhat of a new cast to former designs; and
284

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

if the case, without the execution, can be so man-
aged as to answer all the purposes of the latter,
it will look much better hereafter, when the sen-
sations that now provoke, and the circumstances
that would justify his exit, shall be forgotten.

I am your Excellency's obliged and obed-
ient humble servant,

Thomas Paine.

His Excellency General Washington.

Headquarters^ Verplanck's Point,
gj^. Sept. 18, 1782.

I have the pleasure to acknowledge your
favor of the seventh inst., informing me of your
proposal to present me with fifty copies of your
last publication, for the amusement of the army.

For this intention you have my sincere thanks,
no only on my own account, but for the pleasure,
I doubt not, the gentlemen of the army will re-
ceive from the perusal of your pamphlets.

Your observations on the period of seven
years, as it applies itself to, and affects British
minds, are ingenious, and I wish it may not fail
of its effects in the present instance. The meas-
ures, and the policy of the enemy, are at present
in great perplexity and embarrassment — but I

285

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

have my fears, whether their necessities (which
are the only operative motive with them) are
yet arrived to that point, which must drive them
unavoidably into what they will esteem disagree-
able and dishonorable terms of peace — such, for
instance, as an absolute, unequivocal admission of
American Independence, upon the terms on
which she can alone accept it.

For this reason, added to the obstinacy of the
king — and the probable consonant principles of
some of his principal ministers, I have not so full
a confidence in the success of the present negotia-
tion for peace as some gentlemen entertain.

Should events prove my jealousies to be iU
founded, I shall make myself happy under the
mistake — consoHng myself with the idea of hav-
ing erred on the safest side, and enjoying with
as much satisfaction as any of my countrymen,
the pleasing issue of our severe contest.

The case of Captain Asgill has indeed been
spun out to a great length — but, with you, I
hope that its termination will not be unfavor-
able to this country.

I am. Sir, with great esteem and regard.
Your most obedient servant,

G. Washington.

Thomas Paine^ Esq.
286

\^ = AS PAINE

!> •>, whether til 'ties (which

a;- > . . ..ly operative mc i'>^^m) are

' t Tirrived to that point, v i ^ them

idably into what thev -as^ree-

nd dishonorable terms o for

ce, as an absolute, unequ ' f

Vmerican Independence, upon the t^rw.s on

which she can alone accept it.

For this reason, added to the obstinacy ot the
king — and the probable consonant principles of
some of his principal ministers, I have not so full
a confidence in'^ttl¥J(Pc(?&^Wftfe present negotia-
tion ^^&imm i6m ^^^^meh M^Um.

Should events prove my jealousies to be ill
founded, I shall make myself happy under the

with the idea of hav-
ing erred on the safest side, and enjoying with
as much satisfaction as any of my countrymen,
the pleasing issue of our severe contest.

The case of Captain Asgill has indeea CKren
spun out to a great length — but, v- *' ^ -, I
hope that its termination ^^ *^' >' or-

p.h]f' to this country.

I am. Sir, with pr 'v. nnd regard.

Your most <

G. V JTON.

IAS Paink. Esq.
286

DISSERTATIONS

On Government; the Affairs of the Bank;
AND Paper Money

PREFACE

1HERE present the public with a new per-
formance. Some parts of it are more par-
ticularly adapted to the state of Pennsylvania,
on the present state of its affairs; but there are
others which are on a larger scale. The time
bestowed on this work has not been long, the
whole of it being written and printed during the
short recess of the Assembly.*

As to parties, merely considered as such, I
am attached to no particular one. There are
such things as right and wrong in the world, and
so far as these are parties against each other,
the signature of Common Sense is properly em-
ployed.

Thomas Paine.

Philadelphia, Feb. 18, 1786.

*From December 22, 1785 to February 18, 1786.

287

DISSERTATIONS ON GOVERNMENT
ETC.

in^VERY government, let its form be what
-■--' it may, contains within itself a principle
common to all, which is, that of a sovereign
power, or a power over which there is no con-
trol, and which controls all others; and as it is
impossible to construct a form of government
in which this power does not exist, so there must
of necessity be a place, if it may be so called, for
it to exist in.

In despotic monarchies this power is lodged
in a single person, or sovereign. His will is law ;
which he declares, alters or revokes as he pleases,
without being accountable to any power for so
doing. Therefore, the only modes of redress,
in countries so governed, are by petition or in-
surrection. And this is the reason we so fre-
quently hear of insurrections in despotic govern-
ments ; for as there are but two modes of redress,
this is one of them.

Perhaps it may be said that as the united re-
sistance of the people is able, by force, to con-
trol the will of the sovereign, that therefore,
the controlling power lodges in them; but it
288

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

must be understood that I am speaking of such
powers only as are constituent parts of the gov-
ernment, not of those powers which are external-
ly applied to resist and overturn it.

In republics, such as those established in
America, the sovereign power, or the power over
which there is no control, and which controls all
others, remains where nature placed it — in the
people; for the people in America are the foun-
tain of power. It remains there as a matter of
right, recognized in the constitutions of the coun-
try, and the exercise of it is constitutional and
legal. This sovereignty is exercised in electing
and deputing a certain number of persons to rep-
resent and act for the whole, and who, if they do
not act right, may be displaced by the same pow-
er that placed them there, and others elected and
deputed in their stead, and the wrong measures
of former representatives corrected and brought
right by this means. Therefore, the republican
form and principle leaves no room for insurrec-
tion, because it provides and establishes a right-
ful means in its stead.

In countries under a despotic form of govern-
ment, the exercise of this power is an assumption
of sovereignty; a wresting it from the person in
whose hand their form of government has placed

289

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

it, and the exercise of it is there styled rebelHon.
Therefore the despotic form of government
knows no intermediate space between being
slaves and being rebels.

I shall in this place offer an observation which,
though not immediately connected with my sub-
ject, is very naturally deduced from it, which is
that the nature, if I may so call it, of a govern-
ment over any people, may be ascertained from
the modes which the people pursue to obtain re-
dress of grievances; for like causes will produce
like effects. And therefore the government
which Britain attempted to erect over America
could be no other than a despotism, because it
left to the Americans no other modes of redress
than those which are left to people under despotic
governments, petition and resistance: and the
Americans, without ever attending to a compari-
son on the case, went into the same steps which
such people go into, because no other could be
pursued: and this similarity of effects leads up
to, and ascertains the similarity of the causes or
governments which produced them.

But to return. The repository where the

sovereign power is placed is the first criterion of

distinction between a country under a despotic

form of government and a free country. In a

290

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

country under a despotic government, the sov-
ereign is the only free man in it. In a repubhc,
the people, retaining the sovereignty themselves,
naturally and necessarily retain their freedom
with it: for wherever the sovereignty is, there
must the freedom be.

As the repository where the sovereign power
is lodged is the first criterion of distinction, so
the second is the principles on which it is ad-
ministered.

A despotic government knows no principle
but will. Whatever the sovereign wills to do, the
government admits him the inherent right, and
the uncontrolled power of doing. He is restrain-
ed by no fixed rule of right and wrong, for he
makes the right and wrong himself, and as he
pleases. If he happens (for a miracle may hap-
pen) to be a man of consummate wisdom, justice
and moderation, of a mild affectionate disposi-
tion, disposed to business, and understanding and
promoting the general good, all the beneficial
purposes of government will be answered under
his administration, and the people so governed,
may, while this is the case, be prosperous and
easy.

But as there can be no security that this dis-
position will last, and this administration con-

291

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

tinue, and still less security that his successor
shall have the same quahties and pursue the same
measures; therefore, no people exercising their
reason, and understanding their rights, would, of
their own choice, invest any one man with such a
power.

Neither is it consistent to suppose the knowl-
edge of any one man competent to the exercise
of such a power. A sovereign of this sort, is
brought up in such a distant line of life ; lives so
remote from the people, and from a knowledge
of everything which relates to their local situa-
tions and interests, that he can know nothing
from experience and observation, and all which
he does know, he must be told.

Sovereign power without sovereign knowl-
edge, that is, a full knowledge of all the matters
over which that power is to be exercised, is a
something which contradicts itself.

There is a species of sovereign power in a
single person, which is very proper when ap-
plied to a commander-in-chief over an army, so
far as relates to the military government of an
army, and the condition and purpose of an army
constitute the reason why it is so. In an army
every man is of the same profession; that is, he
is a soldier, and the commander-in-chief is a sol-
292

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

dier too; therefore, the knowledge necessary to
the exercise of the power is within himself. By
understanding what a soldier is, he comprehends
the local situation, interest and duty of every man
within what may be called the dominion of his
command; and, therefore, the condition and cir-
cumstances of an army make a fitness for the ex-
ercise of the power.

The purpose, likewise, or object of an army,
is another reason : for this power in a commander-
in-chief, though exercised over the army, is not
exercised against it; but is exercised through or
over the army against the enemy. Therefore,
the enemy, and not the people, is the object it is
directed to. Neither is it exercised over an army
for the purpose of raising a revenue from it, but
to promote its combined interest, condense its
powers, and give it capacity for action.

But all these reasons cease when sovereign
power is transferred from the commander of an
army to the commander of a nation, and entirely
loses its fitness when applied to govern subjects
following occupations, as it governs soldiers fol-
lowing arms.

A nation is quite another element, and every-
thing in it differs not only from each other, but
all of them differ from those of an army. A na-

293

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

tion is composed of distinct, unconnected in-
dividuals, following various trades, employments
and pursuits; continually meeting, crossing, uni-
ting, opposing and separating from each other,
as accident, interest and circumstance shall direct.
An army has but one occupation and but one
interest.

Another very material matter in which an
army and a nation differ, is that of temper. An
army may be said to have but one temper; for
however the natural temper of the persons com-
posing the army may differ from each other,
there is a second temper takes place of the first:
a temper formed by discipline, mutuality of hab-
its, union of objects and pursuits, and the style
of military manners: but this can never be the
case among all the individuals of a nation.
Therefore, the fitness, arising from those circum-
stances, which disposes an army to the command
of a single person, and the fitness of a single per-
son for that command, is not to be found either
in one or the other, when we come to consider
them as a sovereign and a nation.

Having already shown what a despotic gov-
ernment is, and how it is administered, I now
come to show what the administration of a re-
public is.
294

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

The administration of a republic is supposed
to be directed by certain fundamental principles
of right and j ustice, from which there cannot, be-
cause there ought not to, be any deviation; and
whenever any deviation appears, there is a kind
of stepping out of the republican principle, and
an approach toward the despotic one. This ad-
ministration is executed by a select number of
persons, periodically chosen by the people, who
act as representatives and in behalf of the whole,
and who are supposed to enact the same laws
and to pursue the same line of administration,
as the people would do were they all assembled
together.

The public good is to be their object. It is
therefore necessary to understand what public
good is.

Public good is not a term opposed to the good
of individuals; on the contrary, it is the good of
every individual collected. It is the good of all,
because it is the good of everyone: for as the
public body is every individual collected, so the
public good is the collected good of those indi-
viduals.

The foundation-principle of public good is
justice, and wherever justice is impartially ad-
ministered, the public good is promoted ; for as it

295

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

is to the good of every man that no injustice be
done to him, so likewise it is to his good that the
principle which secures him should not be violat-
ed in the person of another, because such a viola-
tion weakens his security, and leaves to chance
what ought to be to him a rock to stand on.

But in order to understand more minutely,
how the public good is to be promoted, and the
manner in which the representatives are to act
to promote it, we must have recourse to the orig-
inal or first principles, on which the people form-
ed themselves into a republic.

When a people agree to form themselves into
a republic (for the word republic means the pub-
lic good, or the good of the whole, in contradis-
tinction to the despotic form, which makes the
good of the sovereign, or of one man, the only
object of the government), when I say, they
agree to do this, it is to be understood that they
mutually resolve and pledge themselves to each
other, rich and poor alike, to support and main-
tain this rule of equal justice among them. They
therefore renounce not only the despotic form,
but despotic principle, as well of governing as
of being governed by mere will and power, and
substitute in its place a government of justice.

By this mutual compact, the citizens of a re-
296

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

public put it out of their power, that is, they re-
nounce, as detestable, the power of exercising,
at any future time any species of despotism over
each other, or doing a thing not right in itself,
because a majority of them may have strength
of numbers sufficient to accomplish it.

In this pledge and compact* lies the founda-

*This pledge and compact is contained in the declaration of
rights prefixed to the constitution (of Pennsylvania), and is as
follows :

I. That all men are born equally free and independent, and
have certain natural, inherent and unalienable rights, amongst
which are, the enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquir-
ing, possessing and protecting property, and pursuing and ob-
taining happiness and safety.

II. That all men have a natural and unalienable right to
worship Almighty God, according to the dictates of their own
consciences and understanding: and that no man ought or of
right can be compelled to attend any religious worship, or erect
or support any place of worship, or maintain any ministry,
contrary to, or against his own free will and consent: nor can
any man, who acknowledges the being of a God, be justly deprived
or abridged of any civil right as a citizen, on account of his
religious sentiments or peculiar mode of religious worship: and
that no authority can or ought to be vested in, or assumed by,
any power whatever, that shall in any case interfere with, or
in any manner control, the right of conscience in the free exer-
cise of religious worship.

III. That the people of this State have the sole, exclusive
and inherent right of governing and regulating the internal
police of the same.

IV. That all power being originally inherent in, and conse-
quently derived from, the people; therefore, all oflBcers of govern-
ment, whether legislative or executive, are their trustees and
servants, and at all times accountable to them.

V. That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the
common benefit, protection and security of the people, nation
or community; and not for the particular emolument or ad-

297

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

tion of the republic: and the security to the rich
and the consolation to the poor is, that what each
man has is his own; that no despotic sovereign
can take it from him, and that the common ce-

vantage of any single man, family, or set of men, who are a
part only of that community; and that the community hath an
indubitable, unalienable and indefeasible right to reform, alter
or abolish government in such manner as shall be by that com-
munity judged most conducive to the public weal.

VI. That those who are employed in the legislative and ex-
ecutive business of the state may be restrained from oppression,
the people have a right, at such periods as they may think proper
to reduce their public oflficers to a private station, and supply the
vacancies by certain and regular elections.

VII. That all elections ought to be free; and that all free
men having a suflBcient evident common interest with, and attach-
ment to the community, have a right to elect officers, or to be
elected into office.

VIII. That every member of society hath a right to be pro-
tected in the enjoyment of life, liberty and property, and there-
fore is bound to contribute his proportion toward the expense
of that protection, and yield his personal service when necessary,
or an equivalent thereto; but no part of a man's property can
be justly taken from him, or applied to public uses, without his
own consent, or that of his legal representatives; nor can any
man who is conscientiously scrupulous of bearing arms, be justly
compelled thereto, if he will pay such equivalent; nor are the
people bound by any laws, but such as they have in like manner
assented to, for their common good.

IX. That in all prosecutions for criminal oflFenses, a man hath
a right to be heard by himself and his counsel, to demand the
cause and nature of his accusation, to be confronted with the
witnesses, to call for evidence in his favor, and a speedy public
trial, by an impartial jury of the country, without the unanimous
consent of which jury he cannot be found guilty; nor can he
be compelled to give evidence against himself; nor can any man
be justly deprived of his liberty, except by the laws of the
land, or the judgment of his peers.

X. That the people have a right to hold themselves, their
houses, papers, and possessions free from search and seizure j and

298

.WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

meriting principle which holds all the parts of
a republic together, secures him likewise from the
despotism of numbers: for despotism may be
more effectually acted by many over a few, than
by one man over all.

therefore warrants without oaths or affirmations, first made,
aflFording a sufficient foundation for them, and whereby any
officer or messenger may be commanded or required to search
suspected places, or to seize any person or persons, his or their
property, not particularly described, are contrary to that right,
and ought not to be granted.

XI. That in controversies respecting property, and in suits
between man and man, the parties have a right to trial by
jury, which ought to be held sacred.

XII. That the people have a right to freedom of speech, and
of writing and publishing their sentiments; therefore the free-
dom of the press ought not to be restrained.

XIII. That the people have a right to bear arms for the
defense of themselves and the state — and as standing armies,
in the time of peace, are dangerous to liberty, they ought not
to be kept up — and that the military should be kept under a
strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power.

XIV. That a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles,
and a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, in-
dustry and frugality are absolutely necessary to preserve the
blessings of liberty and keep a government free — the people ought
therefore to pay particular attention to these points in the
choice of officers and representatives, and have a right to exact
a due and constant regard to them, from their legislators and
magistrates, in the making and executing such laws as are neces-
sary for the good government of the state.

XV. That all men have a natural inherent right to emigrate
from one state to another that will receive them, or to form
a new state in vacant countries, or in such countries as they can
purchase, whenever they think that thereby they may promote
their own happiness.

XVI. That the people have a right to assemble together, to
consult for their common good, to instruct their representatives,
nnd to apply to the Legislature for redress or grievances, by ad-
dress, petition, or remonstrance.

VIII— 11 299

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

Therefore, in order to know how far the pow-
er of an assembly, or a house of representa-
tives can act in administering the affairs of a
republic, we must examine how far the power of
the people extends under the original compact
they have made with each other ; for the power of
the representatives is in many cases less, but
never can be greater than that of the people rep-
resented; and whatever the people in their mu-
tual, original compact have renounced the power
of doing toward, or acting over each other, the
representatives cannot assume the power to do,
because, as I have already said, the power of the
representatives cannot be greater than that of
the people they represent.

In this place it naturally presents itself that
the people in their original compact of equal
justice or first principles of a republic, renounced
as despotic, detestable and unjust, the assum-
ing a right of breaking and violating their en-
gagements, contracts and compacts with, or de-
frauding, imposing or tyrannizing over each
other, and therefore the representatives cannot
make an act to do it for them, and any such kind
of act would be an attempt to depose not the
personal sovereign, but the sovereign principle
300

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

of the republic, and to introduce despotism in its
stead.

It may in this place be proper to distinguish
between that species of sovereignty which is
claimed and exercised by despotic monarchs, and
that sovereignty which the citizens of a republic
inherit and retain. The sovereignty of a des-
potic monarch assumes the power of making
wrong right, or right wrong, as he pleases or as
it suits him. The sovereignty in a republic is
exercised to keep right and wrong in their prop-
er and distinct places, and never suffer the one
to usurp the place of the other. A republic,
properly understood, is a sovereignty of justice,
in contradistinction to a sovereignty of will.

Our experience in republicanism is yet so
slender, that it is much to be doubted, whether
all our public laws and acts are consistent with,
or can be justified on, the principles of a repub-
lican government.

We have been so much habited to act in com-
mittees at the commencement of the dispute, and
during the interregnum of government, and in
many cases since, and to adopt expedients war-
ranted by necessity, and to permit to ourselves
a discretionary use of power, suited to the spur
and exigency of the moment, that a man trans-

301

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

f erred from a committee to a seat in the legisla-
ture, imperceptibly takes with him the ideas and
habits he has been accustomed to, and continues
to think like a committee-man instead of a legis-
lator, and to govern by the spirit rather than by
the rule of the Constitution and the principles of
the republic.

Having already stated that the power of the
representatives can never exceed the power of
the people whom they represent, I now proceed to
examine more particularly, what the power of the
representatives is.

It is, in the first place, the power of acting as
legislators in making laws — and in the second
place, the power of acting in certain cases, as
agents or negotiators for the commonwealth, for
such purposes as the circumstances of the com-
monwealth require.

A very strange confusion of ideas, danger-
ous to the credit, stability, and the good and hon-
or of the commonwealth, has arisen, by confound-
ing those two distinct powers and things together
and blending every act of the assembly, of what-
ever kind it may be, under one general name, of
Laws of the Commonwealth, and thereby creat-
ing an opinion (which is truly of the despotic
kind) that every succeeding assembly has an
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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

equal power over every transaction, as well as
law, done by a former assembly.

All laws are acts, but all acts are not laws.
Many of the acts of the assembly are acts of
agency or negotiation, that is, they are acts of
contract and agreement, on the part of the state,
with certain persons therein mentioned, and for
certain purposes therein recited. An act of this
kind, after it has passed the house, is of the na-
ture of a deed or contract, signed, sealed and de-
livered; and subject to the same general laws and
principles of justice as all other deeds and con-
tracts are: for in a transaction of this kind, the
state stands as an individual, and can be known
in no other character in a court of justice.

By 'laws" as distinct from the agency trans-
actions, or matters of negotiation, are to be com-
prehended all those public acts of the assembly or
commonwealth, which have a universal operation,
or apply themselves to every individual of the
commonwealth. Of this kind are the laws for
the distribution and administration of justice, for
the preservation of the peace, for the security of
property, for raising the necessary revenue by
just proportions, etc.

Acts of this kind are properly lawSj, and they
may be altered, amended and repealed, or others

303

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

substituted in their places, as experience shall
direct, for the better effecting the purpose for
which they were intended: and the right and
power of the assembly to do this is derived from
the right and power which the people, were they
all assembled together, instead of being repre-
sented, would have to do the same thing: be-
cause, in acts or laws of this kind, there is no
other party than the public.

The law, or the alteration, or the repeal, is for
themselves ; — and whatever the effects may be, it
falls on themselves ; — if for the better, they have
the benefit of it — if for the worse, they suffer the
inconvenience. No violence to anyone is here of-
fered — no breach of faith is here committed. It
is therefore one of those rights and powers which
is within the sense, meaning and limits of the
original compact of justice which they formed
with each other as the foundation-principle of
the republic, and being one of those rights and
powers, it devolves on their representatives by
delegation.

As it is not my intention (neither is it withir^
the limits assigned to this work) to define every
species of what may be called laws (but rather to
distinguish that part in which the representa-
tives act as agents or negotiators for the state
304

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

from the legislative part) I shall pass on to dis-
tinguish and describe those acts of the assembly
which are acts of agency or negotiation, and to
show that as they are different in their nature,
construction and operation, from legislative acts,
so likewise the power and authority of the as-
sembly over them, after they are passed, is differ-
ent.

It must occur to every person on the first re-
flection, that the affairs and circumstances of a
commonwealth require other business to be done
besides that of making laws, and, consequently,
that the different kinds of business cannot all
be classed under one name, or be subject to one
and the same rule of treatment.

But to proceed —

Ey agency transactions, or matters of negoti-
ation, done by the assembly, are to be compre-
hended all that kind of public business, which
the assembly, as representatives of the republic,
transact in its behalf, with a certain person or
persons, or part or parts of the republic, for pur-
poses mentioned in the act, and which the as-
sembly confirm and ratify on the part of the
commonwealth, by affixing to it the seal of the
state.

An act of this kind, differs from a law of the

305

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

before-mentioned kind; because here are two
parties and there but one, and the parties are
bound to perform different and distinct parts:
whereas, in the before-mentioned law, every
man's part was the same.

These acts, therefore, though numbered
among the laws, are evidently distinct therefrom,
and are not of the legislative kind. The former
are laws for the government of the common-
wealth ; these are transactions of business, such as,
selling and conveying an estate belonging to the
public, or buying one ; acts for borrowing money,
and fixing with the lender the terms and modes
of payment; acts of agreement and contract,
with a certain person or persons, for certain pur-
poses: and, in short, every act in which two
parties, the state being one, are particularly men-
tioned or described, and in which the form and
nature of a bargain or contract is comprehended.

These, if for custom and uniformity sake we
call them by the name of laws, are not laws for
the government of the commonwealth, but for the
government of the contracting parties, as all
deeds and contracts are; and are not, properly
speaking, acts of the assembly, but joint acts, or
acts of the assembly in behalf of the common-
306

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

wealth on one part, and certain persons therein
mentioned on the other part.

Acts of this kind are distinguishable into two
classes :

First — Those wherein the matters inserted
in the act have already been settled and adjusted
between the state on one part, and the persons
therein mentioned, on the other part. In this
case the act is the completion and ratification of
the contract or matters therein recited. It is in
fact a deed signed, sealed and delivered.

Second — Those acts wherein the matters have
not been already agreed upon, and wherein the
act only holds forth certain propositions and
terms to be accepted of and acceded to.

I shall give an instance of each of those acts.
First, the state wants the loan of a sum of money ;
certain persons make an offer to government to
lend that sum, and send in their proposals: the
government accept these proposals, and all the
matters of the loan and the payment are agreed
on; and an act is passed according to the usual
form of passing acts, ratifying and confirming
this agreement. This act is final.

In the second case — the state, as in the pre-
ceding one, wants a loan of money — the assembly
passes an act holding forth the terms on which it

307

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

will borrow and pay: this act has no force until
the propositions and terms are accepted of and
acceded to by some person or persons, and when
those terms are accepted of and complied with,
the act is binding on the state.

But if at the meeting of the next assembly,
or any other, the whole sum intended to be bor-
rowed, should not be borrowed, that assembly
may stop where they are, and discontinue pro-
ceeding with the loan, or make new propositions
and terms for the remainder; but so far as the
subscriptions have been filled up, and the terms
complied with, it is, as in the first case, a signed
deed: and in the same manner are all acts, let
the matters in them be what they may, wherein,
as I have before mentioned, the state on one part,
and certain individuals on the other part, are
parties in the act.

If the state should become a bankrupt, the
creditors, as in all cases of bankruptcy, will be
sufferers; they will have but a dividend for the
whole: but this is not a dissolution of the con-
tract, but an accommodation of it, arising from
necessity. And so in all cases of this kind, if an
inability takes place on either side, the contract
cannot be performed, and some accommodation
308

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

must be gone into, or the matter falls through of
itself.

It may likewise, though it ought not to, hap-
pen that in performing the matters, agreeably
to the terms of the act, inconveniences, unfore-
seen at the time of making the act, may arise to
either or both parties: in this case, those incon-
veniences may be removed by the mutual con-
sent and agreement of the parties, and each finds
its benefit in so doing: for in a republic it is the
harmony of its parts that constitutes their sev-
eral and mutual good.

But the acts themselves are legally binding,
as much as if they had been made between two
private individuals. The greatness of one party
cannot give it a superiority or advantage over
the other. The state, or its representatives, the
assembly, has no more power over an act of this
kind, after it has passed, than if the state was a
private person. It is the glory of a republic to
have it so, because it secures the individual from
becoming the prey of power, and prevents might
from overcoming right.

If any difference or dispute arise afterward
between the state and the individuals with whom
the agreement is made respecting the contract, or
the meaning, or extent of any of the matters con-

309

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

tained in the act, which may affect the property
or interest of either, such difference or dispute
must be judged of, and decided upon, by the
laws of the land, in a court of justice and trial by
jury; that is, by the laws of the land already in
being at the time such act and contract was
made.

No law made afterwards can apply to the
case, either directly, or by construction or impli-
cation: for such a law would be a retrospective
law, or a law made after the fact, and cannot
even be produced in court as applying to the
case before it for judgment.

That this is justice, that it is the true prin-
ciple of republican government, no man will be so
hardy as to deny. If, therefore, a lawful con-
tract or agreement, sealed and ratified, cannot be
affected or altered by any act made afterwards,
how much more inconsistent and irrational, des-
potic and unjust would it be, to think of making
an act with the professed intention of breaking
up a contract already signed and sealed.

That it is possible an assembly, in the heat
and indiscretion of party, and meditating on
power rather than on the principle by which all
power in a republican government is governed,
that of equal justice, may fall into the error of
310

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

passing such an act, is admitted; — but it would
be an actless act, an act that goes for nothing,
an act which the courts of justice and the estab-
lished laws of the land, could know nothing of.

Because such an act would be an act of one
party only, not only without, but against the con-
sent of the other; and therefore, cannot be pro-
duced to affect a contract made between the two.
That the violation of a contract should be set
up as a justification to the violator, would be the
same thing as to say, that a man by breaking his
promise is freed from the obligation of it, or that
by transgressing the laws, he exempts himself
from the punishment of them.

Besides the constitutional and legal reasons
why an assembly cannot, of its own act and au-
thority, undo or make void a contract made be-
tween the state (by a former assembly) and cer-
tain individuals, may be added what may be call-
ed the natural reasons, or those reasons which the
plain rules of common sense point out to every
man. Among which are the following:

The principals, or real parties in the contract,
are the state and the persons contracted with.
The assembly is not a party, but an agent in be-
half of the state, authorized and empowered to
transact its affairs.

311

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

Therefore, it is the state that is bound on one
part and certain individuals on the other part,
and the performance of the contract, according
to the conditions of it, devolves on succeeding
assemblies, not as principals, but as agents.

Therefore, for the next or any other assembly
to undertake to dissolve the state from its obli-
gation is an assumption of power of a novel and
extraordinary kind. It is the servant attempt-
ing to free his master.

The election of new assemblies following
each other makes no difference in the nature of
things. The state is still the same state. The
public is still the same body. These do not an-
nually expire, though the time of an assembly
does. These are not new-created every year, nor
can they be displaced from their original stand-
ing; but are a perpetual, permanent body, al-
ways in being and still the same.

But if we adopt the vague, inconsistent idea
that every new assembly has a full and complete
authority over every act done by the state in a
former assembly, and confound together laws,
contracts, and every species of public business, it
will lead us into a wilderness of endless confusion
and insurmountable difficulties. It would be de-
claring an assembly despotic, for the time being.
312

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

Instead of a government of established prin-
ciples administered by established rules, the au-
thority of government, by being strained so high,
would, by the same rule, be reduced proportion-
ately as low, and would be no other than that of
a committee of the state, acting with discretion-
ary powers for one year. Every new election
would be a new revolution, or it would suppose
the public of the former year dead and a new
public in its place.

Having now endeavored to fix a precise idea
to, and distinguish between legislative acts and
acts of negotiation and agency, I shall proceed
to apply this distinction to the case now in dis-
pute, respecting the charter of the bank.

The charter of the bank, or what is the same
thing, the act for incorporating it, is to all in-
tents and purposes an act of negotiation and
contract, entered into, and confirmed between
the State on one part, and certain persons men-
tioned therein on the other part. The purpose
for which the act was done on the part of the
State is therein recited, viz.,, the support which
the finances of the country would derive there-
from. The incorporating clause is the condition
or obligation on the part of the State; and the
obligation on the part of the bank, is "that noth-

313

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

ing contained in that act shall be construed to
authorize the said corporation to exercise any
powers in this State repugnant to the laws or
constitution thereof."

Here are all the marks and evidences of a
contract. The parties — the purport — and the
reciprocal obligations.

That this is a contract, or a joint act, is evi-
dent from its being in the power of either of
the parties to have forbidden or prevented its be-
ing done. The State could not force the stock-
holders of the bank to be a corporation, and
therefore, as their consent was necessary to the
making the act, their dissent would have pre-
vented its being made; so, on the other hand, as
the bank could not force the State to incorporate
them, the consent or dissent of the State would
have had the same effect to do, or to prevent its
being done; and as neither of the parties could
make the act alone, for the same reason can
neither of them dissolve it alone: but this is not
the case with a law or act of legislation, and
therefore, the difference proves it to be an act
of a diff'erent kind.

The bank may forfeit the charter by delin-
quency, but the delinquency must be proved and
established by a legal process in a court of justice
314

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

and trial by jury; for the state, or the assembly,
is not to be a judge in its own case, but must
come to the laws of the land for judgment; for
that which is law for the individual, is likewise law
for the state.

Before I enter further into this affair, I shall
go back to the circumstances of the country, and
the condition the government was in, for some
time before, as well as at the time it entered
into this engagement with the bank, and this
act of incorporation was passed: for the govern-
ment of this State, and I suppose the same of
the rest, were then in want of two of the most
essential matters which governments could be
destitute of — money and credit.

In looking back to those times, and bringing
forward some of the circumstances attending
them, I feel myself entering on unpleasant and
disagreeable ground; because some of the mat-
ters which the attacks on the bank now make it
necessary to state, in order to bring the aifair
fully before the public, will not add honor to
those who have promoted that measure and car-
ried it through the late House of Assembly; and
for whom, though my own judgment and opin-
ion on the case oblige me to differ from, I retain

VIII-22 "-"^^

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

my esteem, and the social remembrance of times
past.

But, I trust, those gentlemen will do me the
justice to recollect my exceeding earnestness with
them, last spring, when the attack on the bank
first broke out; for it clearly appeared to me
one of those overheated measures, which, neither
the country at large, nor their own constituents,
would justify them in, when it came to be fully
understood; for however high a party measure
may be carried in an assembly, the people out of
doors are all the while following their several
occupations and employments, minding their
farms and their business, and take their own
time and leisure to judge of public measures; the
consequence of which is, that they often judge
in a cooler spirit than their representatives act
in.

It may be easily recollected that the present
bank was preceded by, and rose out of a former
one, called the Pennsylvania Bank which began a
few months before ; the occasion of which I shall
briefly state.

In the spring of 1780, the Pennsylvania As-
sembly was composed of many of the same mem-
bers, and nearly all of the same connection, which
composed the late House that began the attack
316

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

on the bank. I served as Clerk of the Assembly
of 1780, which station I resigned at the end of the
year, and accompanied a much lamented friend,
the late Colonel John Laurens, on an embassy to
France.

The spring of 1780 was marked with an ac-
cumulation of misfortunes. The reliance placed
on the defense of Charleston failed, and exceed-
ingly lowered or depressed the spirits of the
country. The measures of government, from
the want of money, means and credit, dragged on
like a heavy loaded carriage without wheels, and
were nearly got to what a countryman would
understand by a dead pull.

The Assembly of that year met, by adjourn-
ment, at an unusual time, the tenth of May, and
what particularly added to the affliction, was, that
so many of the members, instead of spiriting up
their constituents to the most nervous exertions,
came to the Assembly furnished with petitions to
be exempt from paying taxes. How the public
measures were to be carried on, the country de-
fended, and the army recruited, clothed, fed, and
paid, when the only resource, and that not half
sufficient, that of taxes, should be relaxed to al-
most nothing, was a matter too gloomy to look at.

A language very different from that of pe-

317

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

titions ought at this time to have been the lan-
guage of everyone. A declaration to have stood
forth with their lives and fortunes, and a repro-
bation of every thought of partial indulgence
would have sounded much better than petitions.

While the Assembly was sitting, a letter from
the commander-in-chief was received by the ex-
ecutive council and transmitted to the House.
The doors were shut, and it fell officially to me to
read.

In this letter the naked truth of things was
unfolded. Among other informations, the gen-
eral said, that notwithstanding his confidence in
the attachment of the army to the cause of the
country, the distress of it, from the want of every
necessary which men could be destitute of, had
arisen to such a pitch, that the appearances of
mutiny and discontent were so strongly marked
on the countenance of the army, that he dreaded
the event of every hour.

When the letter was read, I observed a de-
spairing silence in the House. Nobody spoke
for a considerable time. At length, a member, of
whose fortitude to withstand misfortunes I had
a high opinion, rose:

"'If," said he, "the accoimt in that letter is
a true state of things, and we are in the situation
318

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

there represented, it appears to me in vain to
contend the matter any longer. We may as well
give up at first as at last."

The gentleman who spoke next, was (to the
best of my recollection) a member of Bucks
County, who, in a cheerful note, endeavored to
dissipate the gloom of the House:

"Well, well," said he, "don't let the House
despair. If things are not so well as we wish, we
must endeavor to make them better."

And on a motion for adjournment, the con-
versation went no further.

There was now no time to lose, and something
absolutely necessary to be done, which was not
within the immediate power of the House to do ;
for what with the depreciation of the currency,
and slow operation of taxes, and the petitions
to be exempted therefrom, the treasury was
moneyless, and the Government creditless.

If the Assembly could not give the assistance
which the necessity of the case immediateh?^ re-
quired, it was very proper the matter should be
known by those who either could or would en-
deavor to do it. To conceal the information
within the House, and not provide the relief which
that information required, was making no use
of the knowledge, and endangering the public

319

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

cause. The only thing that now remained, and
was capable of reaching the case, was private
credit, and the voluntary aid of individuals; and
under this impression, on my return from the
House, I drew out the salary due to me as clerk,
enclosed $500 to a gentleman in this city, in
part of the whole, and wrote fully to him on the
subject of our affairs.

The gentleman to whom this letter was ad-
dressed is Mr. Blair M'Clenaghan. I mentioned
to him, that notwithstanding the current opinion
that the enemy were beaten from before Charles-
ton, there were too many reasons to believe the
place was then taken and in the hands of the en-
emy: the consequence of which would be, that
a great part of the British force would return,
and join at New York; that our own army re-
quired to be augmented, ten thousand men, to
be able to stand against the combined force of the
enemy.

I informed Mr. M'Clenaghan of General
Washington's letter, the extreme distresses he
was surrounded with, and the absolute occa-
sion there was for the citizens to exert themselves
at this time, which there was no doubt they would
do, if the necessity was made known to them;
for that the ability of Government was exhausted.
320

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

I requested Mr. M'Clenaghan to propose a vol-
untary subscription among his friends and
added, that I had enclosed five hundred doUars
as my mite thereto, and that I would increase it
as far as the last ability would enable me to go.*

The next day Mr. M'Clenaghan informed me
that he had communicated the contents of the
letter, at a meeting of gentlemen at the coffee-
house, and that a subscription was immediately
began; that Mr. Robert Morris and himself had
subscribed £200 each, in hard money, and that
the subscription was going on very successfully.
This subscription was intended as a donation, and
to be given in bounties to promote the recruiting
service. It is dated June 8, 1780. The original
subscription list is now in my possession — it
amounts to £400 hard money, and .£101,360 Con-
tinental.

While this subscription was going forward,
information of the loss of Charleston arrived,t
and on a communication from several members
of Congress to certain gentlemen of this city,

* Mr. M'Clenaghan being now returned from Europe, has
ray consent to show this letter to any gentleman who may be
inclined to see it.

fColonel Tennant, aide to General Lincoln, arrived the four-
teenth of June, with despatches of the capitulation of Charles-
ton.

321

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

of the increasing distresses and dangers then
taking place, a meeting was held of the sub-
scribers, and such other gentlemen who chose to
attend, at the city tavern. This meeting was on
the seventeenth of June, nine days after the sub-
scriptions had begun.

At this meeting it was resolved to open a
security-subscription, to the amount of £300,000^
Pennsylvania currency, in real money; the sub-
scribers to execute bonds to the amount of their
subscriptions, and to form a bank thereon for
supplying the army. This being resolved on
and carried into execution, the plan of the first
subscriptions was discontinued, and this extended
one established in its stead.

By means of this bank the army was supplied
through the campaign, and being at the same
time recruited, was enabled to maintain its
ground; and on the appointment of Mr. Morris
to be superintendent of the finances the spring
following, he arranged the system of the pres-
ent bank, styled the Bank of North America,
and many subscribers of the former bank trans-
ferred their subscriptions into this.

Toward the establishment of this bank, Con-
gress passed an ordinance of incorporation, De-
cember twenty-first, which the government of
322

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

Pennsylvania recognized by sundry matters ; and
afterward, on an application of the president
and directors of the bank, through the mediation
of the executive council, the Assembly agreed to,
and passed the State Act of incorporation
April 1, 1782.

Thus arose the bank — produced by the dis-
tresses of the times and the enterprising spirit
of patriotic individuals. Those individuals fur-
nished and risked the money, and the aid which
the Government contributed was that of incorpo-
rating them.

It would have been well if the State had
made all its bargains and contracts with as much
true policy as it made this: for a greater service
for so small a consideration, that only of an act
of incorporation, has not been obtained since the
Government existed.

Having now shown how the bank originated,
I shall proceed with my remarks.

The sudden restoration of public and private
credit, which took place on the establishment of
the bank, is an event as extraordinary in itself
as any domestic occurrence during the progress
of the Revolution.

How far a spirit of envy might operate to

produce the attack on the bank during the sitting

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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

of the late Assembly, is best known and felt by
those who began or promoted the attack. The
bank had rendered services which the Assembly
of 1780 could not, and acquired an honor which
many of its members might be unwilling to own,
and wish to obscure.

But surely every government, acting on the
principles of patriotism and public good, would
cherish an institution capable of rendering such
advantages to the community. The establish-
ment of the bank in one of the most trying vicis-
situdes of the war, its zealous services in the pub-
lic cause, its influence in restoring and support-
ing credit, and the punctuality with which all
its business has been transacted, are matters, that
so far from meriting the treatment it met with
from the late Assembly, are an honor to the
State, and what the body of her citizens may be
proud to own.

But the attack on the bank, as a chartered
institution, under the protection of its violators,
however criminal it may be as an error of govern-
ment, or impolitic as a measure of party, is not
to be charged on the constituents of those who
made the attack. It appears from every circum-
stance that has come to light, to be a measure

which that Assembly contrived of itself. The
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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

members did not come charged with the affair
from their constituents. There was no idea of
such a thing when they were elected or when
they met. The hasty and precipitate manner in
which it was hurried through the House, and the
refusal of the House to hear the directors of the
bank in its defense, prior to the publication of
the repealing bill for public consideration, oper-
ated to prevent their constituents comprehending
the subject: therefore, whatever may be wrong
in the proceedings lies not at the door of the pub-
lic. The House took the affair on its own
shoulders, and whatever blame there is, lies on
them.

The matter must have been prejudged and
predetermined by a majority of the members out
of the House, before it was brought into it. The
whole business appears to have been fixed at
once, and all reasoning or debate on the case
rendered useless.

Petitions from a very inconsiderable number
of persons, suddenly procured, and so privately
done, as to be a secret among the few that signed
them, were presented to the House and read
twice in one day, and referred to a committee
of the House to inquire and report thereon. I

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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

here subjoin the petition* and the report, and
shall exercise the right and privilege of a citizen
in examining their merits, not for the purpose of

*Minutes of the Assembly, March 21, 1785. Petitions from a
considerable number of the inhabitants of Chester County were
read, representing that the bank established at Philadelphia has
fatal effects upon the community; that whilst men are enabled,
by means of the bank, to receive near three times the rate of
common interest, and at the same time receive their money at
very short warning, whenever they have occasion for it, it will
be impossible for the husbandman or mechanic to borrow on the
former terms of legal interest and distant payments of the
principal; that the best security will not enable the person to
borrow; that experience clearly demonstrates the mischievous
consequences of this institution to the fair trader; that imposters
have been enabled to support themselves in a fictitious credit,
by means of a temporary punctuality at the bank, until they
have drawn in their honest neighbors to trust them with their
property, or to pledge their credit as sureties, and have been
finally involved in ruin and distress.

That they have repeatedly seen the stopping of discounts at the
bank operate on the trading part of the community, with a degree
of violence scarcely inferior to that of a stagnation of the blood in
the human body, hurrying the wretched merchant who hath debts
to pay into the hands of griping usurers; that the directors of the
bank may give such preference in trade, by advances of money,
to their particular favorites, as to destroy that equality which
ought to prevail in a commercial country; that paper money
has often proved beneficial to the state, but the bank forbids
it, and the people must acquiesce; therefore, and in order to
restore public confidence and private security, they pray that a
bill may be brought in and passed into a law for repealing the
law for incorporating the bank.

March 28. The report of the committee, read March 25, on
the petitions from the counties of Chester and Berks, and the
city of Philadelphia and its vicinity, praying the act of the
Assembly, whereby the bank was established at Philadelphia, may
be repealed, was read the second time as follows — viz.

The committee to whom was referred the petitions concern-
ing the bank established at Philadelphia, and who were in-

326

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

opposition, but with a design of making an in-
tricate affair more generally and better under-
stood.

structed to inquire whether the said bank be compatible with
the public safety, and that equality which ought ever to pre-
vail between the individuals of a republic, beg leave to report,
that it is the opinion of this committee that the said bank, as
at present established, is in every view incompatible with the
public safety — that in the present state of our trade, the said
bank has a direct tendency to banish a great part of the specie
from the country, so as to produce a scarcity of money, and
to collect into the hands of the stockholders of the said bank,
almost the whole of the money which remains amongst us.

That the accumulation of enormous wealth in the hands of a
society, who claim perpetual duration, will necessarily produce a
degree of influence and power, which cannot be intrusted in the
hands of any set of men whatsoever, without endangering the pub-
lic safety. That the said bank, in its corporate capacity, is em-
powered to hold estates to the amount of ten millions of dollars,
and by the tenor of the present charter, is to exist forever,
without being obliged to yield any emolument to the govern-
ment, or to be at all dependent upon it. That the great profits
of the bank which will daily increase as money grows scarcer,
and which already far exceed the profits of European banks,
have tempted foreigners to vest their money in this bank, and
thus to draw from us large sums for interest.

That foreigners will doubtless be more and more induced to
become stockholders, until the time may arrive when this enor-
mous engine of power may become subject to foreign influence;
this country may be agitated with the politics of European
courts, and the good people of America reduced once more into
a state of subordination, and dependence upon some one or
other of the European powers. That at best, if it were even con-
fined to the hands of Americans, it would be totally destructive of
that equality which ought to prevail in a republic.

We have nothing in our free and equal government capable of
balancing the influence which this bank must create — and we see
nothing which in the course of a few years, can prevent the direct-
ors of the bank from governing Pennsylvania. Already we have
felt its influence indirectly interfering in the measures of the legis-

327

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

So far as my private judgment is capable
of comprehending the subject, it appears to me
that the committee were unacquainted with, and
have totally mistaken, the nature and business
of a bank, as well as the matter committed to
them, considered as a proceeding of government.

They were instructed by the house to inquire
whether the bank established at Philadelphia was
compatible with the public safety. It is scarcely
possible to suppose the instructions meant no
more than that they were to inquire of one an-
other. It is certain they made no inquiry at the
bank, to inform themselves of the situation of
its affairs, how they were conducted, what aids
it had rendered the public cause, or whether any;

lature. Already the House of Assembly, the representatives of
the people, have been threatened, that the credit of our paper
currency will be blasted by the bank; and if this growing evil
continues, we fear the time is not very distant, when the bank
will be able to dictate to the legislature, what laws to pass and
what to forbear.

Your committee therefore beg leave to further report the
following resolution to be adopted by the House — viz.

Resolved, that a committee be appointed to bring in a bUl to
repeal the act of Assembly passed the first day of April, 1782,
entitled, "An act to incorporate the subscribers to the Bank of
North America": and also to repeal one other act of Assembly,
passed the eighteenth of March, 1782, entitled, "An act for pre-
venting and punishing the counterfeiting of the common seal,
bank bills and bank notes of the president, directors and com-
pany, of the Bank of North America, and for the other purposes
therein mentioned,"

328

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

nor do the committee produce in their report a
single fact or circumstance to show that they
made any inquiry at all, or whether the rumors
then circulated were true or false; but content
themselves with modeling the insinuations of the
petitions into a report and giving an opinion
thereon.

It would appear from the report, that the
committee either conceived that the House had
already determined how it would act, without re-
gard to the case, and that they were only a com-
mittee for form sake, and to give a color of in-
quiry without making any, or that the case was
referred to them, as law-questions are sometimes
referred to law-officers for an opinion only.

This method of doing public business serves
exceedingly to mislead a country. When the
constituents of an assembly hear that an inquiry
into any matter is directed to be made, and a
committee appointed for that purpose, they nat-
urally conclude that the inquiry is made^ and that
the future proceedings of the House are in con-
sequence of the matters, facts, and information
obtained by means of that inquiry. But here is
a committee of inquiry making no inquiry at all,
and giving an opinion on a case without inquir-
ing into the merits of it. This proceeding of the

329

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

committee would justify an opinion that it was
not their wish to get, but to get over information,
and lest the inquiry should not suit their wishes,
omitted to make any.

The subsequent conduct of the House, in re-
solving not to hear the directors of the bank, on
their application for that purpose, prior to the
publication of the bill for the consideration of
the people, strongly corroborates this opinion;
for why should not the House hear them, unless it
was apprehensive that the bank, by such a public
opportunity, would produce proofs of its services
and usefulness, that would not suit the temper
and views of its oppressors?

But if the House did not wish or choose to
hear the defense of the bank, it was no reason
that their constituents should not. The Constitu-
tion of this State, in lieu of having two branches
of legislature, has substituted, that, "to the end
that laws before they are enacted may be more
maturely considered, and the inconvenience of
hasty determinations as much as possible pre-
vented, all bills of a public nature shall be printed
for the consideration of the people."* The peo-
ple, therefore, according to the Constitution,
stand in the place of another House; or, more

♦Constitution, sect. 15th.

330

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

properly speaking, are a house in their own right.
But in this instance, the Assembly arrogates the
whole power to itself, and places itself as a bar
to stop the necessary information spreading
among the people.

The application of the bank to be heard be-
fore the bill was published for public considera-
tion had two objects. First, to the House — and
secondly, through the House to the people, who
are as another house. It was as a defense in the
first instance, and as an appeal in the second.
But the Assembly absorbs the right of the people
to judge; because, by refusing to hear the de-
fense, they barred the appeal. Were there no
other cause which the constituents of that As-
sembly had for censuring its conduct, than the
exceeding unfairness, partiality, and arbitrari-
ness with which its business was transacted, it
would be cause sufficient.

Let the constituents of assemblies differ, as
they may, respecting certain peculiarities in the
form of the constitution, they will all agree in
supporting its principles, and in reprobating un-
fair proceedings and despotic measures. Every
constituent is a member of the republic, which is
a station of more consequence to him than being
a member of a party, and though they may dif-

VIII-f8 331

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

fer from each other in their choice of persons to
transact the public business, it is of equal impor-
tance to all parties that the business be done on
right principles ; otherwise our laws and acts, in-
stead of being founded in justice, will be found-
ed in party, and be laws and acts of retalia-
tion; and instead of being a republic of free citi-
zens, we shall be alternately tyrants and slaves.
But to return to the report.

The report begins by stating that, "The com-
mittee to whom was referred the petitions con-
cerning the bank established at Philadelphia, and
who were instructed to inquire whether the said
bank be compatible with the public safety, and
that equality which ought ever to prevail between
the individuals of a repubhc, beg leave to report"
(not that they have made any inquiry, but) "that
it is the opinion of this conmiittee, that the said
bank, as at present established, is, in every view,
incompatible with the public safety." But why
is it so? Here is an opinion unfounded and un-
warranted. The conmiittee have begun their re-
port at the wrong end; for an opinion, when
given as a matter of judgment, is an action of
the mind which follows a fact, but here it is put
in the room of one.

The report then says, "that in the present
332

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

state of our trade, the said bank has a direct
tendency to banish a great part of the specie from
the country, and to collect into the hands of the
stockholders of the bank, almost the whole of
the money which remains among us."

Here is another mere assertion, just like the
former, without a single fact or circumstance to
show why it is made, or whereon it is founded.
Now the very reverse of what the committee as-
serts is the natural consequence of a bank. Spe-
cie may be called the stock in trade of the bank, it
is therefore its interest to prevent it from wan-
dering out of the country, and to keep a con-
stant standing supply to be ready for all do-
mestic occasions and demands.

Were it true that the bank has a direct ten-
dency to banish the specie from the country,
there would soon be an end to the bank; and,
therefore, the committee have so far mistaken the
matter, as to put their fears in the place of their
wishes: for if it is to happen as the committee
states, let the bank alone and it will cease of it-
self, and the repealing act need not have been
passed.

It is the interest of the bank that people
should keep their cash there, and all commercial
countries find the exceeding great convenience of

333

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

having a general depository for their cash. But
so far from banishing it, there are no two classes
of people in America who are so much interested
in preserving hard money in the country as the
bank and the merchant. Neither of them can
carry on their business without it. Their oppo-
sition to the paper money of the late Assembly
was because it has a direct effect, as far as it is
able, to banish the specie, and that without pro-
viding any means for bringing more in.

The committee must have been aware of this,
and therefore chose to spread the first alarm, and,
groundless as it was, to trust to the delusion.

As the keeping the specie in the country is
the interest of the bank, so it has the best oppor-
tunities of preventing its being sent away, and
the earliest knowledge of such a design. While
the bank is the general depository of cash, no
great sums can be obtained without getting it
from thence, and as it is evidently prejudicial
to its interest to advance money to be sent abroad,
because in this case the money cannot by circula-
tion return again, the bank, therefore, is inter-
ested in preventing what the committee would
have it suspected of promoting.

It is to prevent the exportation of cash, and
to retain it in the country, that the bank has, on
334

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

several occasions, stopped the discounting notes
till the danger had been passed.* The first part,
therefore, of the assertion, that of banishing the
specie, contains an apprehension as needless as it

*The petitions say, "That they have frequently seen the stop-
ping of discounts at the bank operate on the trading part of
the community, with a degree of violence scarcely inferior to
that of a stagnation of the blood in the human body, hurrying
the wretched merchant who hath debts to pay into the hands of
griping usurers."

As the persons who say or signed this live somewhere in
Chester County, they are not, from situation, certain of what
they say. Those petitions have every appearance of being con-
trived for the purpose of bringing the matter on. The petitions
and the report have strong evidence in them of being both drawn
by the same person: for the report is as clearly the echo of the
petitions as ever the address of the British Parliament was the
echo of the King's speech.

Besides the reason I have already given for occasionally stop-
ping discounting notes at the bank, there are other necessary rea-
sons. It is for the purpose of settling accounts; short reckon-
ings make long friends. The bank lends its money for short
periods, and by that means assists a great many different people:
and if it did not sometimes stop discounting as a means of
settling with the persons it has already lent its money to, those
persons would find a way to keep what they had borrowed
longer than they ought, and prevent others being assisted. It
is a fact, and some of the committee know it to be so, that
sundry of those persons who then opposed the bank acted this
part.

The stopping the discounts do not, and cannot, operate to call
In the loans sooner than the time for which they were lent, and
therefore the charge is false that "it hurries men into the hands
of griping usurers": and the truth is, that it operates to keep
them from them.

If petitions are to be contrived to cover the design of a house
of assembly, and give a pretense for its conduct, or if a house
is to be led by the nose by the idle tale of any fifty or sixty
signers to a petition, it is time for the public to look a little
closer into the conduct of its representatives.

335

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

is groundless, and which, had the committee
understood, or been the least informed of the
nature of a bank, they could not have made. It
is very probable that some of the opposers of the
bank are those persons who have been disappoint-
ed in their attempts to obtain specie for this pur-
pose, and now disguise their opposition under
other pretenses.

I now come to the second part of the asser-
tion, which is, that when the bank has banished
a great part of the specie from the country, "it
will collect into the hands of the stockholders
almost the whole of the money which remains
among us." But how, or by what means, the
bank is to accomplish this wonderful feat, the
conmiittee have not informed us. Whether peo-
pie are to give their money to the bank for noth-
ing, or whether the bank is to charm it from them
as a rattlesnake charms a squirrel from a tree,
the committee have left us as much in the dark
about as they were themselves.

Is it possible the committee should know so
very little of the matter, as not to know that no
part of the money which at any time may be in
the bank belongs to the stockholders? Not even
the original capital which they put in is any
part of it their own, imtil every person who has
336

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

a demand upon the bank is paid, and if there is
not a sufficiency for this purpose, on the balance
of loss and gain, the original money of the stock-
holders must make up the deficiency.

The money, which at any time may be in the
bank, is the property of every man who holds a
bank note, or deposits cash there, or who has
a just demand upon it from the city of Phila-
delphia up to Fort Pitt, or to any part of the
United States ; and he can draw the money from
it when he pleases. Its being in the bank, does
not in the least make it the property of the stock-
holders, any more than the money in the state
treasury is the property of the state treasurer.
They are only stewards over it for those who
please to put it, or let it remain there : and, there-
fore, this second part of the assertion is somewhat
ridiculous.

The next paragraph in the report is, "that
the accumulation of enormous wealth in the hands
of a society who claim perpetual duration, will
necessarily produce a degree of influence and
power which cannot be intrusted in the hands of
any set of men whatsoever" (the committee I
presume excepted) * 'without endangering pub-
lic safety." There is an air of solemn fear in
this paragraph which is something like introduc-

337

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

ing a ghost in a play to keep people from laugh-
ing at the players.

I have already shown that whatever wealth
there may be, at any time, in the bank, is the
property of those who have demands upon the
bank, and not the property of the stockholders.
As a society they hold no property, and most
probably never will, unless it should be a house
to transact their business in, instead of hiring one.
Every half year the bank settles its accounts, and
each individual stockholder takes his dividend of
gain or loss to himself, and the bank begins the
next half year in the same manner it began the
first, and so on. This being the nature of a bank,
there can be no accumulation of wealth among
them as a society.

For what purpose the word ''society** is intro-
duced into the report I do not know, unless it
be to make a false impression upon people's
minds. It has no connection with the subject,
for the bank is not a society, but a company, and
denominated so in the charter. There are sev-
eral religious societies incorporated in this State,
which hold property as the right of those so-
cieties, and to which no person can belong that
is not of the same religious profession. But this
is not the case with the bank. The bank is a com-
338

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

pany for the promotion and convenience of com-
merce, which is a matter in which all the State
is interested, and holds no property in the man-
ner which those societies do.

But there is a direct contradiction in this para-
graph to that which goes before it. The com-
mittee, there, accuses the bank of banishing the
specie, and here, of accumulating enormous sums
of it. So here are two enormous sums of specie ;
one enormous sum going out, and another enor-
mous sum remaining. To reconcile this contra-
diction, the committee should have added to their
report, that they suspected the hank had found
out the philosopher's stone, and kept it a secret.

The next paragraph is, "that the said bank,
in its corporate capacity, is empowered to hold
estates to the amount of ten millions of dollars,
and by the tenor of the present charter is to
exist for ever, without being obliged to yield
any emolument to the government, or be in the
least dependent on it."

The committee have gone so vehemently into
this business, and so completely shown their want
of knowledge in every point of it, as to make,
in the first part of this paragraph, a fear of what,
the greater fear is, will never happen. Had the
committee known anything of banking, they

339

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

must have known, that the objection against
banks has been (not that they held great estates
but) that they held none; that they had no real,
fixed, and visible property, and that it is the
maxim and practise of banks not to hold any.

The Honorable Chancellor Livingston, late
secretary for foreign affairs, did me the honor
of showing, and discoursing with me on, a plan
of a bank he had drawn up for the state of New
York. In this plan it was made a condition or
obligation, that whatever the capital of the bank
amounted to in specie, there should be added
twice as much in real estates. But the mercantile
interest rejected the proposition.

It was a very good piece of policy in the As-
sembly which passed the charter act, to add the
clause to empower the bank to purchase and hold
real estates. It was as an inducement to the
bank to do it, because such estates being held
as the property of the bank would be so many
mortgages to the public in addition to the money
capital of the bank.

But the doubt is that the bank will not be
induced to accept the opportunity. The bank
has existed five years, and has not purchased a
shilling of real property: and as such property
or estates cannot be purchased by the bank but
340

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

with the interest money which the stock produces,
and as that is divided every half year among the
stockholders, and each stockholder chooses to
have the management of his own dividend, and
if he lays it out in purchasing an estate to have
that estate his own private property, and under
his own immediate management, there is no ex-
pectation, so far from being any fear, that the
clause will be accepted.

Where knowledge is a duty, ignorance is a
crime; and the cormnittee are criminal in not
understanding this subject better. Had this
clause not been in the charter, the committee
might have reported the want of it as a defect,
in not empowering the bank to hold estates as a
real security to its creditors : but as the complaint
now stands, the accusation of it is, that the char-
ter empowers the bank to give real security to its
creditors. A complaint never made, heard of, or
thought of before.

The second article in this paragraph is, "that
the bank, according to the tenor of the present
charter, is to exist forever." Here I agree with
the committee, and am glad to find that among
such a list of errors and contradictions there is
one idea which is not wrong, although the com-
mittee have made a wrong use of it.

341

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

As we are not to live forever ourselves, and
other generations are to follow us, we have
neither the power nor the right to govern them,
or to say how they shall govern themselves. It
is the summit of human vanity, and shows a cov-
etousness of power beyond the grave, to be dic-
tating to the world to come. It is sufficient that
we do that which is right in our own day, and
leave them with the advantage of good examples.

As the generations of the world are every day
both commencing and expiring, therefore, when
any public act, of this sort, is done, it naturally
supposes the age of that generation to be then
beginning, and the time contained between com-
ing of age, and the natural end of life, is the
extent of time it has a right to go to, which
may be about thirty years ; for though many may
die before, others will live beyond ; and the mean
time is equally fair for all generations.

If it was made an article in the Constitution,
that all laws and acts should cease of themselves
in thirty years, and have no legal force beyond
that time, it would prevent their becoming too
numerous and voluminous, and serve to keep
them within view in a compact compass. Such
as were proper to be continued, would be enacted
again, and those which were not, would go into
342

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

oblivion. There Is the same propriety that a
nation should fix a time for a full settlement of
its affairs, and begin again from a new date, as
that an individual should; and to keep within the
distance of thirty years would be a convenient
period.

The British, from the want of some general
regulation of this kind, have a great number of
obsolete laws ; which, though out of use and for-
gotten, are not out of force, and are occasionally
brought up for particular purposes, and inno-
cent, unwary persons trapanned thereby.

To extend this idea still further — it would
probably be a considerable improvement in the
political sj'-stem of nations, to make all treaties
of peace for a limited time. It is the nature of
the mind to feel uneasy under the Idea of a con-
dition perpetually existing over it, and to ex-
cite in itself apprehensions that would not take
place were it not from that cause.

Were treaties of peace made for, and renew-
able every seven or ten years, the natural effect
would be, to make peace continue longer than it
does under the custom of making peace forever.
If the parties felt, or apprehended, any incon-
veniences under the terms already made, they
would look forward to the time when they should

343

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

be eventually relieved therefrom, and might re-
new the treaty on improved conditions.

This opportunity periodically occurring, and
the recollection of it always existing, would serve
as a chimney to the political fabric, to carry off
the smoke and fume of national fire. It would
naturally abate and honorably take off the edge
and occasion for fighting: and however the par-
ties might determine to do it, when the time of the
treaty should expire, it would then seem like
fighting in cool blood : the fighting temper would
be dissipated before the fighting time arrived,
and negotiation supply its place. To know how
probable this may be, a man need do no more
than observe the progress of his own mind on
any private circumstance similar in its nature
to a public one. But to return to my subject.

To give limitation is to give duration: and
though it is not a justifying reason, that because
an act or contract is not to last forever, that it
shall be broken or violated to-day, yet, where no
time is mentioned, the omission affords an oppor-
tunity for the abuse. When we violate a con-
tract on this pretense, we assume a right that be-
longs to the next generation; for though they,
as a following generation, have the right of al-
tering or setting it aside, as not being concerned
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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

in the making it, or not being done in their day,
we, who made it, have not that right ; and, there-
fore, the committee, in this part of their report,
have made a wrong use of a right principle ; and
as this clause in the charter might have been al-
tered by the consent of the parties, it cannot be
produced to justify the violation. And were it
not altered there would be no inconvenience from
it.

The term "forever" is an absurdity that
would have no effect. The next age will think
for itself, by the same rule of right that we have
done, and not admit any assumed authority of
ours to encroach upon the system of their day.
Our forever ends, where their forever begins.

The third article in this paragraph is, that
the bank holds its charter "without being obliged
to yield any emolument to the Government.'*

Ingratitude has a short memory. It was on
the failure of the Government to support the
public cause, that the bank originated. It step-
ped in as a support, when some of the persons
then in the Government, and who now oppose the
bank, were apparently on the point of abandon-
ing the cause, not from disaffection, but from de-
spair. While the expenses of the war were car-
ried on by emissions of Continental money, any

345

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

set of men, in government, might carry it on.
The means being provided to their hands, re-
quired no great exertions of fortitude or wis-
dom ; but when this means failed, they would have
failed with it, had not a public spirit awakened
itself with energy out-of-doors. It was easy
times to the governments while Continental mon-
ey lasted. The dream of wealth supplied the real-
ity of it; but when the dream vanished, the gov-
ernment did not awake.

But what right has the government to ex-
pect any emolument from the bank? Does the
committee mean to set up acts and charters for
sale, or what do they mean? Because it is the
practise of the British Ministry to grind a toll
out of every public institution they can get a
power over, is the same practise to be followed
here?

The war being now ended, and the bank hav-
ing rendered the service expected, or rather hoped
for, from it, the principal public use of it, at this
time, is for the promotion and extension of com-
merce. The whole community derives benefit
from the operation of the bank. It facilitates the
commerce of the country. It quickens the means
of purchasing and paying for country produce,
and hastens on the exportation of it. The emolu-

346

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

ment, therefore, being to the community, it is the
office and duty of government to give protection
to the bank.

Among many of the principal conveniences
arising from the bank, one of them is, that it
gives a kind of life to, what would otherwise be,
dead money. Every merchant and person in
trade, has always in his hands some quantity of
cash, which constantly remains with him ; that is,
he is never entirely without : this remnant money,
as it may be called, is of no use to him till more
is collected to it. He can neither buy produce
nor merchandise with it, and this being the case
with every person in trade, there will be (though
not all at the same time) as many of those sums
lying uselessly by, and scattered throughout the
city, as there are persons in trade, besides many
that are not in trade.

I should not suppose the estimate overrated,
in conjecturing, that half the money in the city,
at any one time, lies in this manner. By collect-
ing those scattered sums together, which is done
by means of the bank, they become capable of
being used, and the quantity of circulating cash
is doubled, and by the depositors alternately lend-
ing them to each other, the commercial system
is invigorated: and as it is the interest of the

VIII-44 " *

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

bank to preserve this money in the country for
domestic uses only, and as it has the best op-
portunity of doing so, the bank serves as a sen-
tinel over the specie.

If a farmer, or a miller, comes to the city with
produce, there are but few merchants that can in-
dividually purchase it with ready money of their
own; and those few would command nearly the
whole market for country produce ; but, by means
of the bank, this monopoly is prevented, and the
chance of the market enlarged.

It is very extraordinary that the late Assem-
bly should promote monopolizing; yet such would
be the effect of suppressing the bank; and it is
much to the honor of those merchants, who are
capable by their fortunes of becoming monopo-
lizers, that they support the bank. In this case,
honor operates over interest. They were the
persons who first set up the bank, and their hon-
or is now engaged to support what it is their in-
terest to put down.

If merchants, by this means, or farmers, by
similar means, among themselves, can mutually
aid and support each other, what has the govern-
ment to do with it? What right has it to expect
emolument from associated industry, more than
from individual industry? It would be a strange
348

AVRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

sort of government, that should make it illegal
for people to assist each other, or pay a tribute
for doing so.

But the truth is, that the government has al-
ready derived emoluments, and very extraordi-
nary ones. It has akeady received its full share,
by the services of the bank during the war; and
it is every day receiving benefits, because what-
ever promotes and facilitates commerce, serves
likewise to promote and facilitate the revenue.

The last article in this paragraph is, "that the
bank is not the least dependent on the govern-
ment."

Have the committee so soon forgotten the
principles of republican government and Con-
stitution, or are they so little acquainted with
them, as not to know, that this article in their
report partakes of the nature of treason? Do
they not know, that freedom is destroyed by de-
pendence, and the safety of the state endangered
thereby? Do they not see, that to hold any part
of the citizens of the state, as yearly pensioners
on the favor of an assembly, is striking at the
root of free elections ?

If other parts of their report discover a want
of knowledge on the subject of banks, this shows
a want of principle in the science of government.

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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

Only let us suppose this dangerous idea car-
ried into practise, and then see what it leads to.
If corporate bodies are, after their incorpora-
tion to be annually dependent on an assembly for
the continuance of their charter, the citizens which
compose those corporations, are not free. The
Government holds an authority and influence
over them, in a manner different from what it
does over other citizens, and by this means de-
stroys that equality of freedom, which is the bul-
wark of the republic and the Constitution.

By this scheme of government any party,
which happens to be uppermost in a state, will
command all the corporations in it, and may
create more for the purpose of extending that in-
fluence. The dependent borough towns in Eng-
land are the rotten parts of their government and
this idea of the committee has a very near relation
to it.

"If you do not do so and so," expressing what
was meant, "take care of your charter," was a
threat thrown out against the bank. But as I do
not wish to enlarge on a disagreeable circumstance
and hope that what is already said is sufficient
to show the anti-constitutional conduct and prin-
ciples of the committee, I shall pass on to the next
paragraph in the report. Which is —
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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

"That the great profits of the bank, which
will daily increase as money grows scarcer, and
which already far exceed the profits of Euro-
pean banks, have tempted foreigners to vest their
money in this bank, and thus to draw from us
large sums for interest."

Had the committee understood the subject,
some dependence might be put on their opinion
which now cannot. Whether money will grow
scarcer, and whether the profits of the bank will
increase, are more than the committee know, or
are judges sufficient to guess at. The committee
are not so capable of taking care of commerce, as
commerce is capable of taking care of itself.

The farmer understands farming, and the
merchant understands commerce; and as riches
are equally the object of both, there is no occa-
sion that either should fear that the other will
seek to be poor. The more money the merchant
has, so much the better for the farmer who has
produce to sell; and the richer the farmer is, so
much the better for the merchant, when he comes
to his store.

As to the profits of the bank, the stockholders
must take their chance for it. It may some years
be more and others less, and upon the whole may
not be so productive as many other ways that

351

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

money may be employed. It is the convenience
which the stockholders, as commercial men, de-
rive from the establishment of the bank, and not
the mere interest they receive, that is the induce-
ment to them. It is the ready opportunity of bor-
rowing alternately of each other that forms the
principal object: and as they pay as well as re-
ceive a great part of the interest among them-
selves, it is nearly the same thing, both cases con-
sidered at once, whether it is more or less.

The stockholders are occasionally depositors
and sometimes borrowers of the bank. They
pay interest for what they borrow, and receive
none for what they deposit ; and were a stockhold-
er to keep a nice account of the interest he pays
for the one and loses on the other, he would find,
at the year's end, that ten per cent on his stock
would probably not be more than common inter-
est on the whole, if so much.

As to the committee complaining "that for-
eigners by vesting their money in the bank will
draw large sums from us for interest," it is like
a miller complaining, in a dry season, that so
much water runs into his dam some of it runs
over.

Could those foreigners draw this interest
without putting in any capital, the complaint
352

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

would be well founded ; but as they must first put
money in before they can draw any out, as they
must draw many years before they can draw even
the numerical sum they put in at first, the effect
for at least twenty years to come, will be directly
contrary to what the committee states; because
we draw capital from them and they only interest
from us, and as we shall have the use of the money
all the while it remains with us, the advantage
will always be in our favor. In framing this
part of the report, the committee must have for-
gotten which side of the Atlantic they were on,
for the case would be as they state it if we put
money into their bank instead of their putting it
into ours.

I have now gone through, line by line, every
objection against the bank, contained in the first
half of the report; what follows may be called,
The lamentations of the committee, and a lament-
able, pusillanimous, degrading thing it is.

It is a public aiFront, a reflection upon the
sense and spirit of the whole country. I shall
give the remainder together, as it stands in the
report, and then my remarks. The lamentations
are:

That foreigners will doubtless be more and more
induced to become stock holders, until the time may

358

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

arrive when this enormous engine of power may become
subject to foreign influence, this country may be agi-
tated by the politics of European courts, and the good
people of America reduced once more into a state of
subordination and dependence upon some one or other
of the European powers. That at best, if it were even
confined to the hands of Americans, it would be totally
destructive of that equality which ought to prevail in
a republic. We have nothing in our free and equal
government capable of balancing the influence which
this bank must create; and we see nothing which in the
course of a few years can prevent the directors of the
bank from governing Pennsylvania. Already we have
felt its influence indirectly interfering in the measures
of the Legislature. Already the House of Assembly,
the representatives of the people, have been threatened,
that the credit of our paper currency will be blasted by
the bank; and if this growing evil continues, we fear
the time is not very distant when the bank will be able
to dictate to the Legislature, what laws to pass and what
to forbear.

When the sky falls we shall all be killed.
There is something so ridiculously grave, so wide
of probability, and so wild, confused and incon-
sistent in the whole composition of this long para-
graph, that I am at a loss how to begin upon it.

It is like a drowning man crying fire! fire!

This part of the report is made up of two
dreadful predictions. The first is, that if for-
eigners purchase bank stock, we shall be all ruin-
ed; — the second is, that if the Americans keep
the bank to themselves, we shall be also ruined.
354

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

A committee of fortune-tellers Is a novelty in
government, and the gentlemen, by giving this
specimen of their art, have ingeniously saved
their honor on one point, which is, that though
the people may say they are not bankers, nobody
can say they are not conjurers. There is, how-
ever, one consolation left, which is, that the com-
mittee do not know exactly how long it may be;
so there is some hope that we may all be in heaven
when this dreadful calamity happens upon earth.

But to be serious, if any seriousness is neces-
sary on so laughable a subject. If the State
should think there is anything improper in for-
eigners purchasing bank stock, or any other kind
of stock or funded property (for I see no reason
why bank stock should be particularly pointed at)
the Legislature have authority to prohibit it. It
is a mere political opinion that has nothing to do
with the charter, or the charter with that; and
therefore the first dreadful prediction vanishes.

It has always been a maxim in pohtics, found-
ed on, and drawn from, natural causes and con-
sequences, that the more foreign countries which
any nation can interest in the prosperity of its
own, so much the better. Where the treasure is,
there will the heart be also; and therefore when

foreigners vest their money with us, they natur-

355

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

ally invest their good wishes with it; and it is
we that obtain an influence over them, not they
over us. But the committee set out so very
wrong at first, that the further they traveled, the
more they were out of their way; and now they
have got to the end of their report, they are at the
utmost distance from their business.

As to the second dreadful part, that of the
bank overturning the government, perhaps the
committee meant that at the next general elec-
tion themselves might be turned out of it, which
has partly been the case; not by the influence of
the bank, for it had none, not even enough to ob-
tain the permission of a hearing from govern-
ment, but by the influence of reason and the choice
of the people, who most probably resent the un-
due and unconstitutional influence which that
House and committee were assuming over the
privileges of citizenship.

The committee might have been so modest as
to have confined themselves to the bank, and not
thrown a general odium on the whole country.
Before the events can happen which the commit-
tee predict, the electors of Pennsylvania must
become dupes, dunces, and cowards, and, there-
fore, when the committee predict the dominion of
the bank they predict the disgrace of the people.
356

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

The committee having finished their report,
proceed to give their advice, which is,

That a committee be appointed to bring in a bill
to repeal the act of Assembly passed the first day of
April, 1782, entitled, "An act to incorporate the sub-
scribers to the Bank of North America," and also to re-
peal one other act of the Assembly passed the eighteenth
of March, 1782, entitled, "An act for preventing and
punishing the counterfeiting of the common seal, bank-
bills and bank notes of the president, directors and com-
pany of the Bank of North America, and for other
purposes therein mentioned."

There is something in this sequel to the report
that is perplexed and obscure.

Here are two acts to be repealed. One is,
the incorporating act. The other, the act for pre-
venting and punishing the counterfeiting of the
common seal, bank bills, and bank notes of the
president, directors and company of the Bank of
North America.

It would appear from the committee's man-
ner of arranging them (were it not for the dif-
ference of their dates) that the act for punishing
the counterfeiting the common seal, etc., of the
bank followed the act of incorporation, and that
the common seal there referred to is a common
seal which the bank held in consequence of the
aforesaid incorporating act. But the case is quite

357

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

otherwise. The act for punishing the counterfeit-
ing the common seal, etc. of the bank, was passed
prior to the incorporating act, and refers to the
common seal which the bank held in consequence
of the charter of Congress, and the style which the
act expresses, of president, directors and com-
pany of the Bank of North America, is the cor-
porate style which the bank derives under the
Congress charter.

The punishing act, therefore, hath two dis-
tinct legal points. The one is, an authoritative
public recognition of the charter of Congress.
The second is, the punishment it inflicts on coun-
terfeiting.

The Legislature may repeal the punishing
part but it cannot undo the recognition, because
no repealing act can say that the State has not
recognized. The recognition is a mere matter of
fact, and no law or act can undo a fact, or put it,
if I may so express it, in the condition it was be-
fore it existed. The repealing act therefore does
not reach the full point the committee had in
view; for even admitting it to be a repeal of the
state charter, it still leaves another charter recog-
nized in its stead.

The charter of Congress, standing merely

on itself, would have a doubtful authority,
858

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

but recognition of it by the state gives it legal
ability. The repealing act, it is true sets aside
the punishment, but does not bar the operation of
the charter of Congress as a charter recognized
by the state, and therefore the committee did their
business but by halves.

I have now gone entirely through the report
of the committee, and a more irrational, incon-
sistent, contradictory report will scarcely be
found on the journals of any legislature of
America.

How the repealing act is to be applied, or in
what manner it is to operate, is a matter yet to
be determined. For admitting a question of law
to arise, whether the charter, which that act at-
tempts to repeal, is a law of the land in the man-
ner which laws of universal operation are, or of
the nature of a contract made between the public
and the bank (as I have already explained in this
work) , the repealing act does not and cannot de-
cide the question, because it is the repealing act
that makes the question, and its own fate is in-
volved in the decision. It is a question of law and
not a question of legislation, and must be decided
on in a court of justice and not by a house of
assembly.

But the repealing act, by being passed prior

859

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

to the decision of this point, assumes the power of
deciding it, and the assembly in so doing erects
itself unconstitutionally into a tribunal of judica-
ture, and absorbs the authority and right of the
courts of justice into itself.

Therefore the operation of the repealing act,
in its very outset, requires injustice to be done.
For it is impossible on the principles of a re-
publican government and the Constitution, to
pass an act to forbid any of the citizens the right
of appealing to the courts of justice on any mat-
ter in which his interest or property is aifected;
but the first operation of this act goes to shut
up the courts of justice and holds them subserv-
ient to the Assembly. It either commands or in-
fluences them not to hear the case, or to give
judgment on it on the mere will of one party
only.

I wish the citizens to awaken themselves on
this subject. Not because the bank is concerned,
but because their own constitutional rights and
privileges are involved in the event. It is a ques-
tion of exceeding great magnitude ; for if an as-
sembly is to have this power, the laws of the land
and the courts of justice are but of little use.

Having now finished with the report, I pro-
360

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

ceed to the third and last subject — that of paper
money.

I remember a German farmer expressing as
much in a few words as the whole subject re-
quires; ^'money is money, and paper is paper"

All the invention of man cannot make them
otherwise. The alchemist may cease his labors,
and the hunter after the philosopher's stone go to
rest, if paper can be metamorphosed into gold
and silver, or made to answer the same purpose in
all cases.

Gold and silver are the emissions of nature:
paper is the emission of art. The value of gold
and silver is ascertained by the quantity which
nature has made in the earth. We cannot make
that quantity more or less than it is, and therefore
the value being dependent upon the quantity, de-
pends not on man. Man has no share in making
gold or silver; all that his labors and ingenuity
can accomplish is, to collect it from the mine, re-
fine it for use and give it an impression, or stamp
it into coin.

Its being stamped into coin adds considerably
to its convenience but nothing to its value. It
has then no more value than it had before. Its
value is not in the impression but in itself. Take
away the impression and still the same value re-

361

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

mains. Alter it as you will, or expose it to any
misfortune that can happen, still the value is not
diminished. It has a capacity to resist the ac-
cidents that destroy other things. It has, there-
fore, all the requisite quahties that money can
have, and is a fit material to make money of; and
nothing which has not all those properties, can
be fit for the purpose of money.

Paper, considered as a material whereof to
make money, has none of the requisite qualities
in it. It is too plentiful, and too easily come at.
It can be had anywhere, and for a trifle.

There are two ways in which I shall consider
paper.

The only proper use for paper, in the room
of money, is to write promissory notes and ob-
ligations of payment in specie upon. A piece of
paper, thus written and signed, is worth the sum
it is given for, if the person who gives it is able
to pay it ; because in this case, the law will oblige
him. But if he is worth nothing, the paper note
is worth nothing. The value, therefore, of such
a note, is not in the note itself, for that is but
paper and promise, but in the man who is obliged
to redeem it with gold or silver.

Paper, circulating in tkis manner, and for
this purpose, continually points to the place and
362

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

persoji where, and of whom, the money is to be
had, and at last finds its home; and, as it were,
unlocks its master's chest and pays the bearer.

But when an assembly undertake to issue pa-
per as money, the whole system of safety and cer-
tainty is overturned, and property set afloat. Pa-
per notes given and taken between individuals as
a promise of payment is one thing, but paper is-
sued by an assembly as money is another thing. It
is like putting an apparition in the place of a
man; it vanishes with looking at it, and nothing
remains but the air.

Money, when considered as the fruit of many
years industry, as the reward of labor, sweat and
toil, as the widow's dowry and children's portion,
and as the means of procuring the necessaries and
alleviating the afflictions of life, and making old
age a scene of rest, has something in it sacred that
is not to be sported with, or trusted to the airy
bubble of paper currency.

By what power or authority an assembly un-
dertakes to make paper money, is difficult to say.
It derives none from the Constitution, for that is
silent on the subject. It is one of those things
which the people have not delegated, and which,
were they at any time assembled together, they
would not delegate. It is, therefore, an assump-

VIII-25 363

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

tion of power which an assembly is not warranted
in, and which may, one day or other, be the means
of bringing some of them to punishment.

I shall enmnerate some of the evils of paper
money and conclude with offering means for pre-
venting them.

One of the evils of paper money is, that it
turns the whole country into stock jobbers. The
precariousness of its value and the uncertainty
of its fate continually operate, night and day, to
produce this destructive effect. Having no real
value in itself it depends for support upon acci-
dent, caprice and party, and as it is the interest
of some to depreciate and of others to raise its val-
ue, there is a continual invention going on that de-
stroys the morals of the country.

It was horrid to see, and hurtful to recollect,
how loose the principles of justice were left, by
means of the paper emissions during the war.
The experience then had, should be a warning to
any assembly how they venture to open such a
dangerous door again.

As to the romantic, if not hypocritical, tale
that a virtuous people need no gold and silver,
and that paper will do as well, it requires no other
contradiction than the experience we have seen.
Though some well meaning people may be in-
364

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

clined to view it in this light, it is certain that the
sharper always talks this language.

There are a set of men who go about making
purchases upon credit, and buying estates they
have not wherewithal to pay for ; and having done
this, their next step is to fill the newspapers with
paragraphs of the scarcity of money and the ne-
cessity of a paper emission, then to have a legal
tender under the pretense of supporting its credit,
and when out, to depreciate it as fast as they
can, get a deal of it for a little price, and cheat
their creditors; and this is the concise history of
paper money schemes.

But why, since the universal custom of the
world has established money as the most conven-
ient medium of traffic and commerce, should pa-
per be set up in preference to gold and silver?
The productions of nature are surely as innocent
as those of art; and in the case of money, are
abundantly, if not infinitely, more so. The love
of gold and silver may produce covetousness, but
covetousness, when not connected with dishonesty,
is not properly a vice. It is frugahty run to an
extreme.

But the evils of paper money have no end. Its
uncertain and fluctuating value is continually
awakening or creating new schemes of deceit.

865

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

Every principle of justice is put to the rack, and
the bond of society dissolved: the suppression,
therefore, of paper money might very properly
have been put into the act for preventing vice
and immorality.

The pretense for paper money has been, that
there was not a sufficiency of gold and silver.
This, so far from being a reason for paper emis-
sions, is a reason against them.

As gold and silver are not the productions of
North America, they are, therefore, articles of
importation; and if we set up a paper manufac-
tory of money it amounts, as far as it is able, to
prevent the importation of hard money, or to
send it out again as fast as it comes in; and by
following this practise we shall continually ban-
ish the specie, till we have none left, and be con-
tinually complaining of the grievance instead of
remedying the cause.

Considering gold and silver as articles of im-
portation, there will in time, unless we prevent it
by paper emissions, be as much in the country as
the occasions of it require, for the same reasons
there are as much of other imported articles. But
as every yard of cloth manufactured in the coun-
try occasions a yard the less to be imported, so it
is by money, with this difference, that in the one
866

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

case we manufacture the thing itself and in the
other we do not. We have cloth for cloth, but we
have only paper dollars for silver ones.

As to the assumed authority of any assembly
in making paper money, or paper of any kind, a
legal tender, or in other language, a compulsive
payment, it is a most presumptuous attempt at
arbitrary power. There can be no such power in
a republican government: the people have no
freedom, and property no security where this
practise can be acted: and the committee who
shall bring in a report for this purpose, or the
member who moves for it, and he who seconds it
merits impeachment, and sooner or later may ex-
pect it.

Of all the various sorts of base coin, paper
money is the basest. It has the least intrinsic val-
ue of anything that can be put in the place of
gold and silver. A hobnail or a piece of wampum
far exceeds it. And there would be more pro-
priety in making those articles a legal tender than
to make paper so.

It was the issuing base coin, and establishing it
as a tender, that was one of the principal means
of finally overthrowing the power of the Stuart
family in Ireland. The article is worth reciting

367

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

as it bears such a resemblance to the process prac-
tised in paper money.

Brass and copper of the basest kind, old can-
non, broken bells, household utensils were assiduously
collected; and from every pound weight of such vile
materials, valued at four pence, pieces were coined and
circulated to the amount of five pounds normal value.
By the first proclamation they were made current in
all payments to and from the King and the subjects
of the realm, except in duties on the importation of
foreign goods, money left in trust, or due by mort-
gage, bills or bonds ; and James promised that when
the money should be decried, he would receive it in all
payments, or make full satisfaction in gold and silver.
The nominal value was afterwards raised by subsequent
proclamations, the original restrictions removed, and
this base money was ordered to be received in all kinds
of payments. As brass and copper grew scarce, it
was made of still viler materials, of tin and pewter,
and old debts of one thousand pounds were discharged
by pieces of vile metal amounting to thirty shillings
in intrinsic value.*

Had King James thought of paper, he needed
not to have been at the trouble or expense of
collecting brass and copper, broken bells, and
household utensils.

The laws of a country ought to be the stand-
ard of equity, and calculated to impress on the
minds of the people the moral as well as the legal
obligations of reciprocal justice. But tender

•Leland's "History of Ireland," Vol. IV. p. 265

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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

laws, of any kind, operate to destroy morality,
and to dissolve, by the pretense of law, what
ought to be the principle of law to support, recip-
rocal justice between man and man: and the
punishment of a member who should move for
such a law ought to be death.

When the recommendation of Congress, in the
year 1780, for repealing the tender laws was be-
fore the Assembly of Pennsylvania, on casting up
the votes, for and against bringing in a bill to re-
peal those laws, the numbers were equal, and the
casting vote rested on the Speaker, Colonel Bay-
ard. "I give my vote," said he, "for the repeal,
from a consciousness of justice; the tender laws
operate to establish iniquity by law." But when
the bill was brought in, the House rejected it,
and the tender laws continued to be the means of
fraud.

If anything had, or could have, a value equal
to gold and silver, it would require no tender law :
and if it had not that value it ought not to have
such a law; and, therefore, all tender laws are
tyrannical and unjust, and calculated to support
fraud and oppression.

Most of the advocates for tender laws are
those who have debts to discharge, and who take
refuge in such a law, to violate their contracts and

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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

cheat their creditors. But as no law can warrant
the doing an unlawful act, therefore the proper
mode of proceeding, should any such laws be en-
acted in future, will be to impeach and execute
the members who moved for and seconded such a
bill, and put the debtor and the creditor in the
same situation they were in, with respect to each
other, before such a law was passed. Men ought
to be made to tremble at the idea of such a bare-
faced act of injustice. It is in vain to talk of re-
storing credit, or complain that money cannot be
borrowed at legal interest, until every idea of ten-
der laws is totally and publicly reprobated and
extirpated from among us.

As to paper money, in any light it can be
viewed, it is at best a bubble. Considered as prop-
erty, it is inconsistent to suppose that the breath
of an assembly, whose authority expires with the
year, can give to paper the value and duration of
gold. They cannot even engage that the next
assembly shall receive it in taxes. And by the
precedent, (for authority there is none,) that
one assembly makes paper money, another may
do the same, until confidence and credit are to-
tally expelled, and all the evils of depreciation
acted over again. The amount, therefore, of
paper money is this, that it is the illegitimate
370

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

offspring of assemblies, and when their year ex-
pires, they leave a vagrant on the hands of the
public.

Having now gone through the three subjects
proposed in the title to this work, I shall conclude
♦vith offering some thoughts on the present affairs
of the state.

My idea of a single legislature was always
founded on a hope, that whatever personal par-
ties there might be in the state, they would all
unite and agree in the general principles of good
government — that these party differences would
be dropped at the threshold of the state house,
and that the public good, or the good of the
whole, would be the governing principle of the
legislature within it.

Party dispute, taken on this ground, would
only be, who should have the honor of making the
laws; not what the laws should be. But when
party operates to produce party laws, a single
house is a single person, and subject to the haste,
rashness and passion of individual sovereignty.
At least, it is an aristocracy.

The form of the present Constitution is now
made to trample on its principles, and the con-
stitutional members are anti-constitutional legis-
lators. They are fond of supporting the form

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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

for the sake of the power, and they dethrone the
principle to display the sceptre.

The attack of the late Assembly on the bank,
discovers such a want of moderation and prud-
ence, of impartiality and equity, of fair and can-
did inquiry and investigation, of deliberate and
unbiased judgment, and such a rashness of think-
ing and vengeance of power, as is inconsistent
with the safety of the republic. It was judging
without hearing, and executing without trial.

By such rash, injudicious and violent proceed-
ings, the interest of the state is weakened, its pros-
perity diminished, and its commerce and its specie
banished to other places. Suppose the bank had
not been in an immediate condition to have stood
such a sudden attack, what a scene of instant dis-
tress would the rashness of that Assembly have
brought upon this city and State. The holders
of bank notes, whoever they might be, would have
been thrown into the utmost confusion and diffi-
culties. It is no apology to say the House never
thought of this, for it was their duty to have
thought of everything.

But by the prudent and provident manage-
ment of the bank, (though unsuspicious of the at-
tack,) it was enabled to stand the run upon it
without stopping payment a moment, and to pre-
372

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

vent the evils and mischiefs taking place which
the rashness of the Assembly had a direct ten-
dency to bring on; a trial that scarcely a bank in
Europe, under a similar circumstance, could have
withstood.

I cannot see reason sufficient to believe that
the hope of the House to put down the bank was
placed on the withdrawing the charter, so much
as on the expectation of producing a bankruptcy
of the bank, by starting a run upon it. If this
was any part of their project it was a very wicked
one, because hundreds might have been ruined to
gratify a party spleen.

But this not being the case, what has the at-
tack amounted to, but to expose the weakness and
raslmess, the want of judgment as well as jus-
tice, of those who made it, and to confirm the
credit of the bank more substantially than it was
ibefore?

The attack, it is true, has had one effect, which
is not in the power of the Assembly to remedy ; it
has banished many thousand hard dollars from
the State. By means of the bank, Pennsylvania
had the use of a great deal of hard money belong-
ing to citizens of other states, and that without
any interest, for it laid here in the nature of de-
posit, the depositors taking bank notes in its

373

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

stead. But the alarm called those notes in and
the owners drew out their cash.

The banishing the specie served to make room
for the paper money of the Assembly and we have
now paper dollars where we might have had silver
ones. So that the effect of the paper money has
been to make less money in the state than there
was before. Paper money is like dram-drinking,
it relieves for a moment by deceitful sensation, but
gradually diminishes the natural heat, and leaves
the body worse than it found it. Were not this
the case, and could money be made of paper at
pleasure, every sovereign in Europe would be as
rich as he pleased. But the truth is, that it is a
bubble and the attempt vanity. Nature has pro-
vided the proper materials for money, gold and
silver, and any attempt of ours to rival her is
ridiculous.

But to conclude. If the public will permit
the opinion of a friend who is attached to no
party, and under obligation to none, nor at va-
riance with any, and who through a long habit of
acquaintance with them has never deceived them,
that opinion shall be freely given.

The bank is an institution capable of being
made exceedingly beneficial to the State, not only
as the means of extending and facilitating its
374

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

commerce, but as a means of increasing the quan-
tity of hard money in the State. The Assembly's
paper money serves directly to banish or crowd
out the hard, because it is issued as money and
put in the place of hard money. But bank notes
are of a very different kind, and produce a con-
trary effect. They are promissory notes payable
on demand, and may be taken to the bank and
exchanged for gold or silver without the least
ceremony or difficulty.

The bank, therefore, is obliged to keep a con-
stant stock of hard money sufficient for this pur-
pose; which is what the Assembly neither does,
nor can do by their paper; because the quantity
of hard money collected by taxes into the treas-
ury is trifling compared with the quantity that
circulates in trade and through the bank.

The method, therefore, to increase the quan-
tity of hard money would be to combine the se-
curity of the government and the bank into one.
And instead of issuing paper money that serves
to banish the specie, to borrow the sum wanted of
the bank in bank notes, on the condition of the
bank exchanging those notes at stated periods and
quantities, with hard money.

Paper issued in this manner, and directed to
this end, would, instead of banishing, work itself

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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

into gold and silver; because it will then be both
the advantage and duty of the bank and of all
the mercantile interests connected with it, to pro-
cure and import gold and silver from any part
of the world, to give in exchange for the notes.
The English Bank is restricted to the dealing in
no other articles of importation than gold and
silver, and we may make the same use of our
bank if we proceed properly with it.

Those notes will then have a double security,
that of the government and that of the bank:
and they will not be issued as money, but as host-
ages to be exchanged for hard money, and will,
therefore, work the contrary way to what the pa-
per of the assembly, uncombined with the secur-
ity of the bank, produces: and the interest al-
lowed the bank will be saved to the government,
by a saving of the expenses and charges attending
paper emissions.

It is, as I have already observed in the course
of this work, the harmony of all the parts of a
repubhc, that constitutes their several and mutual
good. A government that is constructed only to
govern, is not a republican government. It is
combining authority with usefulness, that in a
great measure distinguishes the republican sys-
tem from others,
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WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

Paper money appears, at first sight, to be a
great saving, or rather that it costs nothing; but
it is the dearest money there is. The ease with
which it is emitted by an assembly at first, serves
as a trap to catch people in at last. It oper-
ates as an anticipation of the next year's taxes.
If the money depreciates, after it is out, it then,
as I have already remarked, has the effect of
fluctuating stock, and the people become stock-
jobbers to throw the loss on each other.

If it does not depreciate, it is then to be sunk
by taxes at the price of hard money; because the
same quantity of produce, or goods, that would
procure a paper dollar to pay taxes with, would
procure a silver one for the same purpose. There-
fore, in any case of paper money, it is dearer to
the country than hard money, by all the expense
which the paper, printing, signing, and other at-
tendant charges come to, and at last goes into
the fire.

Suppose one hundred thousand dollars in pa-
per money to be emitted every year by the as-
sembly, and the same sum to be sunk every year
by taxes, there will then be no more than one
hundred thousand dollars out at any one time. If
the expense of paper and printing, and of per-
sons to attend the press while the sheets are strik-

377

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

ing oif , signers, etc., be five per cent it is evident
that in the course of twenty years' emissions, the
one hundred thousand dollars will cost the coun-
try two hundred thousand dollars. Because the
papermaker's and printer's bills, and the expense
of supervisors and signers, and other attendant
charges, will in that time amount to as much as
the money amounts to; for the successive emis-
sions are but a re-coinage of the same sum.

But gold and silver require to be coined but
once, and will last an hundred years, better than
paper will one year, and at the end of that time
be still gold and silver. Therefore, the saving to
government, in combining its aid and security
with that of the bank in procuring hard money,
will be an advantage to both, and to the whole
community.

The case to be provided against, after this,
will be, that the Government do not borrow too
much of the bank, nor the bank lend more notes
than it can redeem; and, therefore, should any-
thing of this kind be undertaken, the best way
will be to begin with a moderate sum, and ob-
serve the effect of it. The interest given the bank
operates as a bounty on the importation of hard
money, and which may not be more than the
money expended in making paper emissions.
378

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

But nothing of this kind, nor any other public
undertaking, that requires security and duration
beyond the year, can be gone upon under the
present mode of conducting government. The
late Assembly, by assuming a sovereign power
over every act and matter done by the State in
former assemblies, and thereby setting up a
precedent of overhauling, and overturning, as the
accident of elections shall happen or party pre-
vail, have rendered government incompetent to
all the great objects of the state. They have
eventually reduced the public to an annual body
like themselves; whereas the public are a stand-
ing, permanent body, holding annual elections.

There are several great improvements and un-
dertakings, such as inland navigation, building
bridges, opening roads of communication through
the state, and other matters of a public benefit,
that might be gone upon, but which now cannot,
until this governmental error or defect is reme-
died. The faith of government, under the pres-
ent mode of conducting it, cannot be relied on.
Individuals will not venture their money in un-
dertakings of this kind, on an act that may be
made by one assembly and broken by another.

When a man can say that he cannot trust the
government, the importance and dignity of the
VIII-S8 379

WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE

public is diminished, sapped and undermined;
and, therefore, it becomes the pubhc to restore
their own honor by setting these matters to rights.

Perhaps this cannot be effectually done until
the time of the next convention, when the prin-
ciples, on which they are to be regulated and
fixed, may be made a part of the constitution.

In the meantime the public may keep their
affairs in sufficient good order, by substituting
prudence in the place of authority, and electing
men into the government, who will at once throw
aside the narrow prejudices of party, and make
the good of the whole the ruling object of their
conduct. And with this hope, and a sincere wish
for their prosperity, I close my book.

380

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